NAVAL DOCKYARD DISMISSALS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 345, 28 January 1937, Page 6

NAVAL DOCKYARD DISMISSALS

MOTION OF CENSURE SOME FORCE BEHIND. Men Would Not-Act On Own Initiative. London, Jan. 26. In a long, sharp debate that followed Sir Samuel Hoare’s statement on the dockyard dismissals in the House of Commons to-day Mr. J. Maxton (Labour) said no punishment was too severe for men who would send men in a submarine or a battleship to certain death, but was the master-mind among these five? The five dockyard workers could not have been serving the *ends of any party in Britain, Mr. Maxton continued. Therefore, if the Admiralty believed them to be the agents of a foreign Power he was not content that thdy should merely be dismissed and allowed to wander round the country.

Admiral E. A. Taylor (Con.) said the sabotage described could not be carried out by an ordinary dockyard employee on his own initiative There must have been an organisation directed by a foreign Power using the dockyard men as tools.

Mr. Atlee expressed the opnion that it would be possible to establish a tribunal to vindicate the dockyard workers or find them guilty. The Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, said subversive propaganda was extremely difficult to combat because it ran so largely underground. It could be met, in the Government’s view, only by the methods employed on this occasion. Labour members might have to use the same service if they came to office, and they would find themselves -equally barred from giving the information which the House expected.