POLITICAL OBJECT DENIED

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 198, 19 May 1944, Page 6

POLITICAL OBJECT DENIED

Wellington Housing Committee ’“Cr. Appleton , has implied that the. housing committee is a political ‘racket supported only by Labour Party membrts and Communists,” said the Rev. H. Squires, city missioner, aud president ot the Wellington Citizens’. Housing and Accommodation Committee, in reply to Cr. Appleton yfesterday. "Cr. Appleton drew this conclusion from the fact that Mr. J. Roberts advertised that he would be speaking in the Town Hall on Thursday evening, the date of the committee c public meeting. The inference was incorrectly drawn, and Cr. Appletons statement is in effect a slander on the committees and its members, for whicn he should apologise. ’ "The platform of .the committee, and my own position with regard to it, is perfectly clear. About tw,y9a r s ago I was asked by the Bishop of Wellington and the mayor, Mr. Hislop, to conduct them round Wellington's slum areas. Both were extremely shocked at what they saw, and Mr. Hislop stated that a full report on the whole position was■urgently required. Accordingly, when I saw that a committee had been formed with sufficient energy and initiative to make such a report, and which was obviously determined to do something to remedy the position, I attached myself to it, and will continue to be associated with it till its task is completed and Wellington’s citizens are properly housed.

“To infer that it is in any way a political organization is ridiculous, lhe organizations represented on the committee, and those which have supported, it. include the Public Service Association, the Business and Professional Women s Club, the Young Women’s Christian Association. the Registered Nurses’ .-Association. the New Zealand Association ot Scientific Workers, and many others. A full list of the thirty odd organizations which-have indicated, their support ot our committee’s work is available for Cr. Appleton’s inspection if he wishes to sec it. Naturally, the committee itself includes people who belong to the National Party, the Labour Party, and. the Communist Party, but these individuals are not acting as representatives of their parties, but as public-spirited people who realize that the housing and .accommodation position in AVellington is no longer a political question, but one which every right-minded citizen, whatever his political affiliations, should do his utmost to alleviate.”