A LOVELY LUNCHEON.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 May 1920, Page 3

A LOVELY LUNCHEON.

LABOR MINISTER’S BOMBSHELL. ' SYDNEY, May 1. One of the new Labour Ministers of New South Wales (Mr Lang, the Treasurer) dropped a bombshell into a happy luncheon party on Saturday May 1. They are still talking about him. It evas the annual picnic of the employees of the Clyde Engineering Company, a very big and wealthy Sydney concent. An invitation to the function was sent to Mr Lang, and he duly appeared and took, his seat at ail elaborate luncheon table in a big marquee. Soon afterwards hisy health, was toasted, and the assemblage sang 'For He’s a" Jolly Good Fellow.’ He said that, in bia opinion, the singing did not count for much. They would have sung it just the same for a National Minister-—the enemy of his party. Ho had accepted their invitation and gone out there, not to meet this select gathering of directors, foremen and bosses but to meet the shop hands and their good wives. It was an employees’ picnic, he understood—where were the employees? The answer was ‘Outside.’ The Chairman, Mr Membrey, who spoke on behalf of the company (continued Mr Lang), had declared ■ that the company sought co-operation and co-ordination, but his actions did not support his words.. So long as the directors and the managers in this way kept aloof from their employees there would lie no co-operation and co-ordi-nation. The dignity of Labour, about which they had been talking was not considered so long as the employers kept on one side of the line and the workmen and'their wives on the other.

'file astonished and outraged gathering bad by this time got their breath, and Mr Membrey interjected warmly; “Mr Lang is only a member of Parliament, and I am more—T am a member of society—and if he says I do not stand for the .dignity of Labor he is not speaking the truth.” Mr Lang said he was not afraid of the whole body bf directors. The man who came out in. dirty overalls and the good wife at- the washtub had a higher dignity than those who merely talked about dignity. Mr Lang gave them a good .deal more on these lines, and as soon finished, a dozen men .were on their feet eager to reply. The Chairman .said that, the luncheon was made possible because everyone paid a guinea towards it. 'Hie workers could not pay that. Mr Lang: “Then why have such an expensive luncheon?”

A director said : “I suppose von came down here in a State car to tell us this.” 1 Mr' Lang answered, with apparently much satisfaction, that .he had liml a car at jhis own expense, to make the journey—and thereupon left, with all the honours of war.