UNDESIRABLE IMPORTS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 221, 12 May 1932, Page 4

UNDESIRABLE IMPORTS

i Each of the four principal cities of the Dominion has now j heen the scene of more or less grave civil disorders, but in only j two cases, at Auckland and Wellington, has the trouble led to ; indiscriminate material damage. For this there is one outstanding reason apparent. In each of the South Island cities the demonstrators believed they had a grievance for which they could only obtain adequate consideration by taking drastic measures. They therefore decided upon "direct action". and mistaken thoiigh such tactics are, espeeially in times like the. present, because they can only succeed in making bad worse, such action as • was taken was directed solely against the .anthprity held.by the demonstrators £o be at fault. In Dunedin an attack.was made on the premises of the Hospital Board which had refused to concede certain demands for additional relief, while in Christchurch the demonstrations were intended to prevent the Tramways Board from operating its service during the strike. In Auckland and Wellington, however, the case was altogether diiferent. In the North Island cities, where the damage done was extensive and in each case of the most wanton character, advantage of peaceful demonstrations by organised workers was taken by a comparatively small criminal element which had attached itself to the demonstrators, to make deliberate and apparently premeditated attacks on the property o£ private citizens who were in no way connected with the rnatters in dispute. In each case the wreckers awaited their opportunity with patience and exploited "it with skill, circumstances which in themselves are strong evidence of premeditation. And in each the obvious intention was to saddle innocent men in the public mind with responsibility for an outrage Which it is quite certain the overwhelming majority of them deplore and condemn as strongly as any in the community. Even in Christchurch, where the circumstances were different from those in other centres, owing to the fact that a strike was in progress, the active part in such attacks on property as were made appears to have been almost wholly confined to men not personally connected _ with the trouble. This is indicated by the fact that of the sixteen men charged in connection with the most serious outbreak of trouble 111 Christchurch, only two were strikers. This being the case, it is clear that a heavy responsibijity for the preservation of peace, the protection of the .property of innocent fellow-citizens and the safeguarding of the good name of New Zealand rests upon; tbe shoulders of all loyal citizens and their organisations. If, in the exercise of their undisputed right (in normal times) to protest en masse as a means bf emphasising grievances, citizens are exposing public order and private property to the attacks of the rabble— and recent events show dearly that they are — they will have to devise other and less dangerous means of achieving their legitimate ends. This, it is obvious, .must be done, either Iby the people themselves voluntarily through theix own organisations, or on their behalf by the authorities by means of prohibitions, a step which they will naturally be reluctant to take. If the thing is to be done voluntarily, it will need both courage and clear thinking on the part of the responsible leaders of the people's organisations, because as the law stands, they and their fellows are exposed to the subversive influence and even personal attacks of the evilly disposed who, whatever their , own description of themselves may be, it is usual and convenient to describe as "Communists." In each case of s'erious disorder that "has occurred in the Dominion -recently, agitators uescribed as known "Communist" leaders have been found taking 'an active part. This being so, the evidence now available- shoum be sufficient to warrant the Governmeht taking immediate. ef- , ' fective measures- against these geritry. As, with very few exiiHMUi rnsmmmammMmmmatmssmm