Plea for Fair Play

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 90, 6 December 1912, Page 6

Plea for Fair Play

I CAPITALISTIC HATRED OF ! SEMPLE. i ANOTHER REJECTED LETTER: Pear Comrade, —I am sending you a letter which the. Dunedin "Staf" refused to publish. They have adopted the policy of crushing the Federation without allowing anyone to defend it. The enclosed letter is in reply to a criticism that appeared in the "Star" on November 13: — (To the Editor, "Evening Star.") Dear Sir, —Ever since the commencement of the strike at Waihi the press of New Zealand have not had a kind \4ord to say for "the men tout on strike. In the opinion of the press, the men on strike could neither do nor.say the right thing—-everyone of their moves was misrepresented and- tbeir actions so interpreted by the press as to make one believe that they were a Rang of ruffians bent on outrage and lawlessless. The press expected these, men to stand idly by aJid see the. attempt, made to break the strike without uttering a word of protest. When the strikers showed their disapproval by following up the 'loyalists" and jeering at them they were charged with a breach of the peace, and as a result; over 40 are in jail. . j At the time of the prosecutions the strikers wdre in the majority at Waihi; now, however, they are temporarily in the minority. The reports of the proceedings ai> Waihi show that the "loyalists" have mustered sufficient courage (about 100 or more) to attack about a dozen men in the Union hall, break all the windows, force an entrance and cruelly ill-treat them. This behaviour cannot he interpreted as "behaving in such a way as to cause a breath of the peace"; it is an actual breach, and what becomes of the claim that the police are in Wnihi to protect both striker and non-striker? Surely a fine display of British fair-play! Tn your article you say "that the rules of British fair play in th<? mat- ■ jter of numbers were (without solitary [exceotion) observed." Yon certainly

can't mean that the fight in the Union hall was conspicuous for "British fair play, in the matter of numbers?" If the police have shown any tolerance it has not been for the strikers. Your quotation from that friend of the workers, Charles Dickens, is more applicable to the arbitrationists of Waihi than it is to the strikers. You conclude your article as follows: "But there remains another factor which cannot be ignored: the presence in New Zealand of those who took a leading part in promotion and continuance of the strike—Mr. Semple, for instance. The Dominion managed to get on fairly w<vll before be troubled this part of Australasia, "and New Zealand could again do without him. Hβ might be given fbe hint to allow, us to make tho experiment." I wish to remind you that "Mr. Semple was not in New Zealand in 18P0, and yet we had a strike that extended from Auckland to the Bluff. And strikes will occur whether Mr. Semple is in New Zealand or not.. .There are others i prepared to take his piece. To my mjnd, the above quotation shows that .your conception of "British fair play" is certainly unique.—-I am, Sir, youre sincerely, M.S.