LABOUR PROTEST.

Otaki Mail, Volume 26, 27 June 1919, Page 3

LABOUR PROTEST.

MR FIELD'S REMARKS AT PALMERSTON. "AN INCITEMENT TO VIOLENCE." The following letter, forwarded to tho Acting-Prime Minister (Sir James Allen) and signed by Mr Robert McKeen, secretary of the Wellington Labour Representation Committee, explains itself:— "Sir,—l have been instructed by the Wellington Labour Representation Committee to direct your attention to the following statements reported to havo been made by Mr W. H. Field, M.P., in the course of a speech at the Mamawatu Agricultural and Pastoral Association's rooms in Palmcrston North on Saturday, 14th June, and which appeared in tho columns of the "New Zealand Times'' of 17th June, and in the "Manawatu Daily Times" of 18th June. The following is the report from the "New Zealand Times": 'They (referring to the Labour Party) would like to attain their end with one fell swoop, and it was an end that could only mean civil war. Personally, 'he would shoulder his rifle to prevent being dispossessed and robbed if those people had their way, and he believed every other farmer would do the same.'

"The 'Manawatu Daily Times' reports: 'The Labour Party were getting in the thin end of the wedge, and if they were not careful there would be civil war. He was sure every man present would be prepared to shoulder his rifle fo protect his Tights sooner than let these gentlemen have their way. Bolshevism was spreading, and it was their duty to see- it never got a hold in ithis country.'

"My committee considers that, if Mr Field was correctly reported, his declaration in fayour of armed resistance to possible legal enactments of a Con-stitutionally-elected Government, if that- Government happened to be a Labour one, is a direct incitement to violence, social disorder, bloodshed, and , anarchvyand cannot be construed other- ! wise thin as a. threat that if the Labour Party is returned to power at. the next or any subsequent general election the then popularly elected, representative, and responsible Government of the country will be held u? at the point of the rifle by Mr Field" and Ms fellow terrorists and enemies of constirutiosal and orderly government. The sinister derigc of this particular agitator in the causa of vested interests and esploitatio'a to terrify the general public with threats of rebellion and civil war into withholding from the Labour Party at the ballot-bos will meet, my j committee belie'Ve?, with the contempt I it ae"serYi?s at iha hands of the people; but thd a.3«Watfy of anarchical, bloodthirsty policy of- deliberately plunging the Country info revolution and chaos on behalf of jnTere'afs, so "coldblotiaeTSy forfthaSo'w'eH aa3 outlined by Mr Field, if the newspaper report* are accurate, will be, aay coiimittee

feass; followed by the most disastrous social coasequsaces, if jroor Govern-

ment allows it to pass unnoticed and permits such propaganda to be carried on. - i "Labour considers that faith in the accepted form of government as representing the , paramount will of the people will bo destroyed if threats of armed revolt can be made with impunity. Citizens have already been sentenced to terms of imprisonment in New Zealand under the Crimes Act and under tie War Regulations for utterances not one-hundredth part so subversive of law and order as those accredited to Mr Field. "My committee desires to know what action, if any, Cabinet intends to take in the matter, or whether it is content to enforce one code of law for the representatives'of Labour and another, entirely opposite, for tho representatives of. Capital and Property.—l urn; yours faithfully (signed) Robert McKeon, Secretary."—Evening Post.