MR. FIELD AND BOLSHEVISM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1997, 1 July 1919, Page 3

MR. FIELD AND BOLSHEVISM.

REPLY TO PROTESTS. The following-letter has been sent to the Acting-Prime Minister by-Mr •W. H. Field (M.P. for Otaki), in reply to a loiter of protest sent to Sir James Allen by the secretary of the "Wellington Labour Representation Gomrflittee, condemning remarks made by Mr Field at a meeting of the Farmers’ Union held at Palmerston North:—“l read in the Evening Post of Kith inst, a letter full of professions of virtuous indignation and violent condemnation of myself, addressed to you by the secretary of the "Wellington Labour Representation Committee, on the subject of a speech I delivered at ty meeting o? farmers at Palmerston North on the 14th inst. I rang your secretary today to know whether you wished to hoar from me oil (he matter, and I have to-night received your letter inviting my comments. “I had nol previously seen the

newspaper reports of my speech in question. Furthermore, I have no Record of my utterances beyond c; M’ew rough notes, but I am quite clear as to their nature and meaning. The main object of my address was to urge the complete organisation of farmers throughout the Dominion to maintain their rights, and those of the community generally, and particularly to check the spread of Bolshevism in this country. Dealing with Bolshevism, I pointed out that the Bolsheviks of Russia, the Spartacists of Germany, and the

I.W.W. organisation of America,

and extreme revolutionary Labour this country, were all of the same political creed, though at present operating under somewhat different conditions. I upheld sane and moderate Labour, and said (hat unhap- ’ pily a handful of .extremists were attempting to sway and voice the workers of this country, ami that their influence was on the increase. I drew attention to the fact that while the British Empire and her Allies were in the midst of a life and death struggle with the Huns and savages of Europe, and our boys were lighting- in the trenches under

conditions of incessant peril, and J%cre lying down their lives for us, leading Labourites in this country, sheltering under rhe British flag, were disloyal to King and Empire, and were doing their utmost to discourage enlistment, and so prevent our soldiers from receiving reinforcements (hey so sorely needed. I said that these same people were now professing to extend the right hand of fellowship to our returned soldiers, whom they had endeavoured to so grievously harm. I said that taking advantage of the present unrest and discontent, hugely

based on the increased cost of liv-

. ing, and the profiteering that un"Tliappily is still rampant, the extremist leaders of Labour were seeking to make political profit and capital out of flic war, concerning which they had played so ignoble a part, I warned my hearers not to be misled by smooth-tongued speeches from (lie platform, for the Labour extremist did not carry his politics on his sleeve. 1 pointed out to the fanners present the deadly hatred of the Bolshevik for any man who owns a piece of property, or who employs labour, and that one of the chief objects of Bolshevism was to destroy capital, and private employment, and enterprise. I urged that the two great forces, capital and labour, were interdependent, and (hat if each did its duty to the other there was no possible room for enmity between them. I said that every man who was prepared to do a fair day's work should receive .sufficient wages to enable him not only to maintain himself and his family in comfort, but: also, with ordinary economy, to accumulate savings for the purchase of a farm or home for himself, and to provide for his declining years.

FARMERS THE BOURGEOISIE

“I read (he German Sparta cist policy, and also portion of the sermon of Bishop Julius delivered recently in the Christchurch Cathedral, in the course of which his Lordship predicted a terrible calamity in the form of world-wide Bolshevism. His Lordship declared that we to-day were in peril, that a shadow of a great danger hung over us all. Bolshevism, what did it mean? It was just that fear, that sense of the world driven to despair, and nothing else. It came to men, ignorant men, who could see just this, that things were not what they ought to be. They found no help and descended in despair, destruction and ruin. ‘lt is coming. It is coining. It is coming/ continued his Lordship, ‘as surely as Christians are unfaithful to the Church.’ We thought, he said, we could stop it by maintaining a standing army, .that in any case it was foreign to the character of the British people, but it was there, and it must come till it overwhelmed our churches, our civil law upon which we prided ourselves, and there was nothing left but a desert to which once more a message from above might be heard. He said he knew very terrible days were coming, and, perhaps, coming ■very soon. Bolsheviks, I said, were out to create ruin and chaos from which they hoped to rise triumphant. I drew attention to the terrible conditions of Russia under Bolshevik rule, and said Unit if they got suificicnt hold in New Zealand the same thing might occur here, and that in the event of such a disaster I believed every farmer who was present would willingly take up his rifle and defend his home and his rights. I reminded the farmers present that they form a section of the bourgeoisie, and, they knew how the bourgeoisie had been dealt with by

the Bolsheviks in Russia. DANGER FROM EXTREMISTS.

“I am perfectly well aware that iq the event of laws, however unjust, being .passed by constitutional means, every citizen is called upon to submit to those laws. We all remember the strike of 1913, when there was no war-created unrest, and conditions were normal, but nevertheless the country was redue-' ed, while the strike lasted, to a state of terror and stagnation. The produce of the farmer was left to <rot on the wharves, firearms were used, and men armed themselves with iron bars and other weapons. Happily, there was no loss of life. That strike was a mere circumstance compared with what a general strike, of which there seemed more than a prospect a tew months back, would be under the present conditions. The whole world is suffering from industrial unrest, fostered by extremist labour leaders, and nobody can foretell its development and consequences. If a general strike should occur, who can say that Bolshevism, if it secures sufficient hold in this country, may not he able to take advantage of the awful turmoil that would ensue, and with one fell swoop seize control of the country? And who will lie bold enough to proclaim that civil war would not follow? It was not for this that our boys fought and endured and bled ,and died. It is this’ hideous possibility, and it is more than a possibility, that I am doing my best to prevent, and with that view I am begging farmers to organise and exercise a steadying influence on the community, and assist In the* bringing about of a condition of tilings which will render our country peaceful, happy, and prosperous, with a full measure of justice to every individual and section of individuals. I would draw your attention to the fact that recently an extremist Labour member of Hie House delivered a lecture on Lenin; the Bolshevik leader, in which he extolled that man as one of the saviours of the world! that another has recently been at great pains to defend Bolshevism and its objects, and that another announced that if he were in Russia lie would be a Bolshevik, and if in Germany he would be a Spurtacist. I am informed, 100, that one of tiiese members, in the course of reluming thanks after his election, said: ‘They call us Bolsheviks, So we are, and we will show them that we are.’ How, then, can those members dissociate themselves from Bolshevism? We know only too well what Bolshevism menus, that it spells revolution, confiscation, disorder, starvation, outrage, and ruin. So long as my voice can be heard it shall he raised to help save this country from such colossal arid deadly peril, no matter what the personal consequences to myself.”

At a meeting of the members of the Palmerston North Branch of the 'Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, the following resolution was carried: — “That this branch of the A.S.R.S. hereby draws the attention of- the Minister for Justice to the statements made by Mr Field, M.P. for Otaki, at the Palmerston North Show, and requests the Minister to slate whether the National Government will discriminate between the remarks of a Labour loader and that of a farmer M.P.”