SEDITIQUS TALK.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 October 1920, Page 5

SEDITIQUS TALK.

LABOR'S SOVIET PLAN, AIMING AT DISASTER. STATEMENT BY, THE PREMIER, (By Wire.—Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, Last Night. Attention was directed in the .House of Representatives to-day, by Mr. E. Newman (Manawatu) to certain speeches by representatives of a section of Labor. A paper recording statements made nt a public meeting said: "At a Labor gathering on Wednesday evening some of the speakers frankly advocated the institution in this country of the Soviet system. One speaker said the workers of New Zealand had to organise as the workers of Russia and Italy were organised; industrialists mußt take chaige of the industries. Auothei prominent figure in Labor circles said he looked forward to the time when there would be an alliance of labor j thai would directly represent the work-] crs of New Zealand in an industrial Far-; liament, making laws to govern the in-,' dustrial life of the country. He hoped! that within two years an industrial Par- j liament would be established in place of J the present political Parliament." Mr. j Newman said he wished to ask Mr. Mas- '■ scy whether ho considered it in the pub ; lie interest that such doctrines should j be expounded, and whether he proposed: to take any steps in the matter. "I shall be very pleased," said thej Prime Minister, "to call the attention | of the Crown law officer to the expres-; sion of opinion which the hon. member J has just quoted. 'I had not seen the! paragraph until a member drew my at- j tention to it a few minutes ago. There ] are two sentences, there which suggest! that the workers should follow the ex- j ample of Russia—that. is, . adopt a j Soviet form of government—and sug-1 {jesting that an industrial Parliament should take the place of the present I political Parliament." j Mr. H. E. Holland (Labor Leader): I There is no crime in that!—(Hearhear, j from other Labor members). ! Mr. ,Massey: I say it is seditious. ; Mr. Holland: Of course it i 3 not. Mr. Massey: That is my opinion. Mr. Holland: lam prepared'to advocate it on a public platform to-morrow, and challenge you to take action. j "The hon. member should restrain himself," said the Prime Minister, when: able to make himself heard- He was not a lawyer, and was not giving a legal opinion, but he believed it was seditious, and the men who said it should be punished. Mr. Holland: You try it on! Mr. Massey added that the thing was folly. "It is Bolshevism," he said, "and is worse than folly, and can only end .in one thing—disaster. There is no question in that—(Hear, Hear) —I hope it will not be serious, but the thing must be taken in hand and stopped." He said it was absurd for people to talk in this country of a Parliament on the lines of the so-called one which governed Russia —(interruptions). "This country," declared Mr. Massey, "is British, and is going to continue to be British, and the Parliament is going to i e representative of the whole of the people." Mr. Holland: That is what the workers want, and you don't! Mr. Massey said Parliament was representative of the people now, and it was going to continue so, and people who preached these doctrines were enemies of the country, hnd were acting against the best interests of the country. "It has got to be put down." he said. "My own opinion is that it > has gone too far as it is." i Mr. E. J. Howard (Christchurch South): How are you going to stop it? Mr. P. Fraser (Wellington Cent.al) asked if the Prime Minister would also submit to the Crown law office, an anonymous letter in - the same papev which practically advocated bloodshed. t The Prime Minister said he had no knowledge of the letter which was referred to, but he would look into the matter if it was submitted to him. Mr. Holland asked if the Prime Minister would also have submitted a subleader appearing in the Sun newspaper recently, which stated that if a Labor Government came into power there would undoubtedly be war, as the capitalists would not submit to i Labor Government. It seemed that the Prime Minister was anxious only to proceed against one side. The Prime Minister said that might be Mr. Holland's opinion. If the_ article referred to were shown to him, he would be able to make up his own imnd about it.