PATRIOTIC DRIVES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 130, 2 May 1940, Page 11

PATRIOTIC DRIVES

RESISTANCE COUNSELLED. CIRCULAR CONDEMNED. WELLINGTON, May 2. A circular letter from Mr, E. R. Newton, secretary of the Wellington Clothing Trades Industrial Union of Workers, has been sent to members of the union urging them to refrain from participating in any scheme of employers to raise money for patriotic purposes. The circular, which has been received in'AVellington softgoods houses with indignation, is the subject of strong comment by representatives of the commercial community. Mr Newton’s circular is as follows: “Members are urged not to particiI pate in any scheme of employers to raise money for patriotic purposes. All such schemes are bad from a union point of view. During the last war the employers got all the credit for the money subscribed by their workers. It was cheap publicity for them, and some of them took advantage of the position to avoid giving themselves. “Already some members have been asked to agree that 3d a week should be deducted from their., wages—others have been asked to work on Saturday mornings and authorise their employer to pay the overtime to a patriotic fund. “Insist on getting every penny,of the wages you earn. Let the employers be patriots at their own expense — not yours. If deduction from '■wages is once permitted, there is no knowing where it will stop. “If you wish to subscribe for patriotic purposes that is entirely your own affair —not the union’s and not the employers’—but, if you subscrilie, do so independently in your own name.” HIGH INDIGNATION.

, Asked if he had seen a copy of the circular, Mr A. AV. Nisbet, secretary of the AA’ellington Softgoods Manufacturers’ Industrial Union of Employers, said yesterday that he had received a number of copies from justly-in-dignant members of his organisation. Incidentally, he added, the indignation appeared to bo just as liigb among the workers as among the employers. “It is most regrettable,” said Mr Nisbet, “that Mr Newton should have seen fit to issue such a circular. As he himself was on active service dining the last war his attitude is all the more inexplicable. Many of the employers on whom Mr Newton so unjustly casts a slur also served during the last war, and as a result of that service they realise just what the extra comforts provided by the patriotic funds mean to men on active service. It ill becomes anyone living today in security in New' Zealand to obstruct the efforts of those who are trying to raise funds for the comfort of troops overseas. “1 have in my possession severaHetters from the National Patriotic Fund Board and the Red Cross thanking members of mv organisation and their staffs for assistance in Red Cross and Patriotic Fund efforts; 1 have also seen similar letters prominently displayed in the dining-rooms in some of our factories, so that there is just as little justification for Mr Newton’s suggestion that the employers get the credit for money subscribed by workers as there is for the rest of his untimely and ill-considered circular.” CHALLENGE ISSUED.

■ “Speaking as president of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, and also as one actively associated with patriotic work, I may say I read this circular by Mr Newton with surprise and disgust,” said Mr R. H. Nirnmo yesterday. “When the country is doing its best in the war effort and our- men are going overseas to join their comrades who went before them a discordant note of this kind, which would be unjustifiable in any circumstances, becomes -more than ever reprehensible. “I think I might go so far as to challenge Mr Newton to substantiate the very grave suggestion be lias put forward about employers, and to produce chapter and verse and name the firms who in the past appear to have been the cause of his present indiscreet and ill-considered circular.”