"POLITICAL MARTYRS."
Nowadays the martyr to a cause generally finds material success in his martyrdom. He becomes a hero, and often gets a billet in the Government service. Some indignation was felt in other parts of the Dominion as well as in Wellington when it became known that the Trades and Labour Council of the Empire City had "sacked" its secretary (Mr W. H. Westbrooke) because he had
dared to give expression to a political opinion in print. The Wellington Council has been at the back of the Independent Political Labour League (in close relation to the Socialist Party), whose sole representative in the new Parliament is Mr David McLaren. And those I.L.P. Leaguers actually dismissed an officer who had always spoken his mind freely! But the gravamen of his offence was that he had said the Labour Party would gain more by supporting the Government than the Opposition Party. But, s?ys the "Feilding Star," Mr Westbrooke, who was a coach painter in the Railway workshops at Petone before he became the poorly-paid secretary of the Trades Council, has had his reward. He has been given a post in the Labour Department. We think the appointment will prove a good one, should Mr Westbrooke become an inspector; but we regret the circumstances under which a Government department made an appointment. It is not good for the State to reward political martyrs.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAG19090105.2.10.3
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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3084, 5 January 1909, Page 4
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231"POLITICAL MARTYRS." Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3084, 5 January 1909, Page 4
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