MR. JESSEP'S REPLY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 315, 31 August 1932, Page 6

MR. JESSEP'S REPLY

H.

DANIELS.

(To the Editor). • Sir, — In reading your report of tho "Post" representative's interview with Mr. Jessep regarding the plight of the men from the 60/8 camp it would appear that Mr. Jessep had satisfactorily disposed of the matter by inferring that the men deserved no consideration, as they had refused the relief made possible by citizens who were in little better case than themselves. You may remember, sir, that it has been an oft-quoted maxim of the Government that relief workers, must regard their meagre pittanee as neither wages nor charity. but as a sustenance allowance for wliich they must render adequate service. In this case the service is rendered under the most trying and rigorous climatic conditions obtaining in New Zealand, without the necessary warm clothing which would make adequate service possible. A great deal has .been said about the trouble having been caused by a few discontented agitators. I wish to point out that men who are literally shanghaied into these camps under threat of starvation, do not require more agitation than is supplied by the conditions under which they are compelled to exist, and furthermore, sir, the writer having had extensive dealings with these men, can assure the public that, with the exception of n few men of a certain class, they are as fine a type of ' young man as can he produced in any part of this or any other country. In conclusion, let me say that it is very easy for Mr. Jessep, himself drawing a handsome salary from the same source as these men draw their pittanee, to sit back in a de lux§ carriage, or an easy chair in an up-to-date hotel. and judge of the merits or demerits of a case involving halfclad, wholly miserable victims of the present Government's incompetency. — I am. etc.

Rotorua, August 30.