AN EMPHATIC CONTRADICTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 14 November 1913, Page 5

AN EMPHATIC CONTRADICTION.

BY COLONEL HEARD

MR WEBB'S DIGNITY HURT

WELLINGTON, Last Night.

The Minister of Defence read a letter from Colonel Heard, ,_in the House of Representatives this afternoon, giving an emphatic contradiction to the allegation made by Mr Robertson (member for Otaki) in the Mouse that he (Colonel Heard.) was in command of the special constables. Mr Robertson explained what had occurred that led to his making the statement. He had, he said, been stepped by pickets on the wharf, and while explaining his position Colonel Heard had said in his hearing that no one was to be allowed to.pass unless they had a pass .signed that morning. Later, Commissioner Culleh arrived, and apologising, allowed him to proceed. He was later escorted round the wharves by Colonel Russell. Several other members protested, amidst continued interruptions, against their treatment by specials. "Messrs Pearce, Bollard and Escott defended the specials. Sir Joseph Ward said he had been in Parliament for 26 years, and had never seen a more humiliating scone than was witnessed that afternoon. The Hon. James Allen, in replying, also regretted the incidents of that afternoon. He emphasised the fact that Colonel Heard had striven all along to keep the military out of the strike question.