FLAXMILLERS AND CONSCRIPTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 June 1916, Page 4

FLAXMILLERS AND CONSCRIPTION.

THE MANAWATU PROTEST. MR. MASSEY'S SWUF.PING REm By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington. Last Sight. During last week Mr. Masscy a letter from the secretary of the Manaw'fttn Flaxmills Employee!' Union, forwarding a copy of resolutions objecting to the Military Service Bill, and threatsuing to strike if Die P,ill were enforeed, 111 reply, Mr. Massey sent the follow - ing letter:—'-Sir—l am in receipt of your letter of June 12. covering a cfcpy of resolutions -laid to have been carried at a large ,vnss meeting of meiltbers of your Union, held at Palmerston North on Saturday last. Permit me to remind you, and, through you, the members of your I'iiion, that the first duty of the (loveriiment i* to preserve law v and order and to maintain constitutional authority in the couiitrv. and that it is hound, further, to protect, and defend the nation against its enemies, both from without ami wirhiu. In passing the Military Service Hill the National Government has considered first, as was its hounden duty, the public safety, with which the welfa'e of the community is inseparably associated. Yon may rest assured that when the Bill reaches the Statute Book, as it will do in a few days, it will be administered bv the Government with the strictest .impartiality, without fear or favor, and in the best interests of the nation, from which I hope members of your Union do not wish to dissociate themselves, I nnto that your first resolution claims 1h;-*t the meeting of llaxworkcs at which it was carried, 'having carefully considered the Conscription Bill in detail now before the legislators, and its nassage through the House, is of unanimous opinion that it is not a military sitv," etc. From my personal knowledge of aftairs in this country, extending now over a period of twenty-two years, during which I have been continuously a member of the House of Representatives, I am satisfied that, no measure that has ever come before Parliament has received more careful consideration, first at. the hands of the Cabinet, and then in Parliament, than this Military Service Bill which vou condemn in sweeping terms. I am, further, satisfied that the country as a whole is solidly with tho Government in the steps it is taking to preserve the safety of the nation and to help tTie Empire in its grave hour of peril, and that in the execution of that supreme duty it will be fully -supported by public opinion.".