HYDRO WORKERS’ CONFIDENCE IN MR SEMPLE

Grey River Argus, 15 April 1948, Page 7

HYDRO WORKERS’ CONFIDENCE IN MR SEMPLE

CHRISTCHURCH, April 14 “I know there are a lot of people who would like to see meon the political scrap heap, but I am still on the inside looking out,” said the Minister of Works (Mr R. Semple), addressing 500 hydro-electric workers and their wives at. Tekapo last night. Mr Semple said he knew there were people in Public Works camps preaching that “Fraser and Semple shomo oe got rid of.” The meeting carried a resolution of confidence in the Government, ano another denouncing Communism on the lines of ihat passed in Christchurch on Sunday. Mr Semple said that his recent visit to Australia had resulted in a determination to fight Communism over the length and breadth of New Zealand. He was obviously disappointed that, against expectations, there were no interjectors. but he said he was “as full of fight as a Butcher’s cat.” Discussing challenges which had been issued to him, Mr Semple said that he had no time to waste on these individuals.... “They want an audience. They can’t get an audience themselves, but they know Bob Semple can get one anywhere in New Zealand. A blind goose and a billy goat would not turn out to see some of these people.” Mr Semple said he would not refer directly to what had happened in the North Island since the matter was still sub judice, but made many quotations from a Communist newspaper called “Spark,” which, he said, was published in a hydro-electric camp in the North. If- these people would go to Russia he would like to see th« result if they spoke of M. Stalin as they had of Mr Fraser. They would be “cold meat by daylight." Mr Semple showed the audience a copy he had of a Communist letter sent to New Zealand in 1934, and another copy of a circular letter sent out only a fortnight ago by the New Zealand Communist Party, which said that the Communist Party based itself firmly on the scientific principles set out by such leaders of mankind as Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin. He said that the threat of Communism in Australia was such that the country lived in fear of having its steel production closed up for seven years, which could happen if the blast furnaces ran cold at Newcastle because of shortage of coal. The production of steel at Newcastle was down 40 per cent., now. “Don’t say it can’t happen here: it can,” said Mr Semple. He praised, however, the loyalty of the men of Tekapo, who, he said, were doing a fine job. Mr Parry Attacks Communism DUNEDIN, April 13. “Democracy is once again on trial; the international outlook gives reason for serious misgivings; we are faced with an onslaught throughout the world from those desirous of breaking down the principles of democracy,” said the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr W. E. Parry) in his address to the annual conference of the Municipal Association tonight. “We have seen the enslavement of certain European countries by Communism,” he continued. “No longer do the people of those unfortunate countries have the right to free speech, free elections and individual freedom. They have disappeared behind the Iron Curtain. “Nothing less than world domination is aimed at. The evidence is not wanting that the same interests are at work in New Zealand.” People were rather inclined in a democracy to take their freedoms and liberties for granted and to regard them as something that could not disappear. However, they had the

example of Czechoslovakia, whose people were noted for their inherent love of democratic freedom, “yet the insiduous underground work of Communism has succeeded in completely destroying the democratic instatutions of that country.’’ - BITTER LESSONS Mr Parry said New Zealand should fake to heart the bitter lessons of what happened in Czechoslovakia. “We and other democratic nations must face the issue squarely and fearlessly,’’ he said. “The time has come when something more than lioservice must be paid to our ideals.” He said that it was inevitable that differences of opinion would arise between various sections of the community, but the sensible way to settle any dispute was by an appeal to reason'. That was the constitutional way. “The other method is by the use of threats and force; that is, the law of the gun,” he added. The Minister said he did not apologise for reiterating what he had often said before: that a strong local government system was the foundation of a democracy. Freel local bod> elections were unknown in totalitarian countries. The local bodies there were simply puppets of the ruling party. That was the negation of all the principles upon which the British system of Government was hased He knew there was a grave lack of interest in local government affairs, but people must be educated to realise that it was .just that lack of interest that created fertile ground for the operations of those opposed to free democracies. He appealed to his listeners to do everything possible to bring to people in their communities a realisation of their clear duty as citizens to support the principles of democracy. A strong and virile local government backed by the will of the.people, was one of the best defences against the spread of propaganda designed to undermine democratic institutions.