A DASTARDLY ATTACK

Taranaki Daily News, 5 September 1919, Page 5

A DASTARDLY ATTACK

ON SOLDIER MEMSSEf QK& PARLIAMENT. 1 BY LABOR MOUTHPIECE, ,'jj PREMIER'S STRONG DENUNCUttj (By Wire.—Own Correspondantif Wellington, Last Nfcu The House showed more it usually displays to-night, wheal! fsitt asked Mr. Matsejr if he h»4 jj the following paragraph in the JSU land Workers— ;j "Paddy will find when he oomujl that the boy* think more of fclajj ever. When one thinks of thoMM M.P.s who pretended to go to tkiKil but never got near enough to amO M thing stronger than rum, one nnut jq at the hypocrisy of these galltat JH I'iors. Paddy was willing to dia Kb be for. his principles; that is tbt i of man we can depend upon, ndl the loud-mouthed, fbg-flappfnf- f robbers who would 'rat' a its fleas! Don't worry, Paddy, t%>\ workers, are going to put 'paid* it/( or two little accounts in the near&|tt|

Mr Massey replied that hi lad i the paragraph. "I read the p**MM With disgust and contempt," he wtd* could not help thinking of those mal of Parliament who have done tfwir # in the awful war, which we no slm think has now come to an end. I fij of Mr. Downie Stewart, who Mrrtdf distinction, and who will carry th*mi of the war to his grave. (Hear, btt I thought of Major Hine, who vol teered in the early days of the war, J who went out with other mtmbari Parliament to risk danger and f| death, coming back to this country i ously wounded, shot through the Mf I thought of Major Coatee, who «t back to us after serving tome ytui the Western Front, wounded on 1 occasions, and with the distinction!

the Military Cross and bar. I thoU of Captain Seddon, who served Ira distinction through one of the moat swfi fights of the war, that at Paescheadwli And then I could not help thmkiag *, the terms of opprobrium with. wLU these men were referred to in the am graph quoted by the member for dart* church North." \ An Hon. Member: And Dr. Buds, P Newman, and Captain Bell Mr. Massey: I was just going to Ml that Dr. Buck and Captain B«I1 Wei among those who had been members «i the House. I thought, too, of T—Hffj of the House who, as parents, suit tfcla sons to the front, and I could not haU thinking of the fact that many ot tMH boys (Captain Bell among them) Wsj never see their country again. I don 'think it is necessary to do anythingsl I connection with the paragraph. I lam what the people of this country •wU think of it. I don't think it U mmmmm to set the law in motion, althoqgh.J | believe that the law has been brabM • I think the proper thing to do is to tON this thing with the contempt it desetVM with the contempt which, I feel sure, will bo felt by every man and woman in tfcN country on reading it. It is not naoai sary for me to refer to Mr. Webb, i! regret that a member of ParliatMM failed in his duty and broke the fcttfj He has paid the penalty for breaking tin law. I hope he will come baek ton society a better man than he left It IK have no bitter feeling against Mr. Wetj| Every man has a right to his q*f opinions, but I do feel strongly, a*.l member of Parliament, as one ot ta fathers who sent his boys to take mn in the awful fighting which resoKea'H tho deaths of 17,000 New* Zealanderl that I never want to read suoh patfo graphs. I don't want to know anything about them. The Hon. Member wal quite right in calling attention to ■lf I can't help speaking strongly, bewiaj I fool strongly about such dastardly. tacks upon men who did their data! Sir Joseph Ward supported the pTOtafl Mr. Holland asked the indulgences the House to make a statement as chaW

man of the Labor Party. "I wish to say, as chairman of the Labor Party,' he said, "that we dissociate ourselvej entirely from the matter published and referred to here to-night. It ic not part of the work of the Labor movement tfl attempt to blacken or discredit itjj political opponents, and whatever oib views were on the war we were read] to give every credit to the men whj went to the war believing they wag doing tho right thing, just as we bfj sistcd on giving the right of conscietw to every man. We of the Labor Tarn regret exceedingly that the MaotUaM Worker should nave followed the imf bad example rfet by our political oppotv ents. (Cries of dissent.) The men whfl went to prison for conscience sake W«ri vilified and slandered and called every name possible, and wo listened to and took it in: but we disapprove a| strongly as anybody else in this SbQM of personal attack and persons! abuse! and wo regret that this method sabuH| have been followed by our own side**! this method employed by the other aidjj against men on our side. ■' Mr. Isitt: It is a pity the disavowal did not come earlier That is all I tart to say, '"