“YOU’RE A LIAR”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 May 1938, Page 2

“YOU’RE A LIAR”

INTERJECTER AND MINISTER. SCENE AT WELLINGTON MEETING (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. May 26. The declaration of an interjector that the Minister of Labour, the Hon. H. T. Armstrong, was a liar, and a retort by Mr Armstrong that he would poke the interjector in the nose, led to a brief incident at the meeting addressed by the Minister at St. Anne’s Hall, Northland, tonight. At the time the Minister was comparing the treatment of pensioners under the Labour Government with that under the Coalition Government and said that nobody in New Zealand had had a reduction in pensions under the present Government. The interjector: There are, I know it. You know that is a lie. Mr Armstrong: Don’t you tell me that or I will poke you in the nose. The interjector: You’re a liar. Mr Armstrong: I don’t stand that sort of thing from a snipe like you. I believe in straight talk. The interjector then protested that he had not called the Minister a liar. “I never made such a remark,” he said. The chairman, Mr H. M. Campbell: Order, please! Several members of the audience near the interjector urged him to apologise. Mr Armstrong: The interjector deserves our sympathy and not our condemnation. Everybody is not responsible for what they say. We have had a very nice meeting here tonight and we are not going to have it disturbed by one hooligan. I can stand any amount of criticism. I have been getting it all my life. But don’t tell me that I lie. I don’t do that. I may be mistaken in some of my conclusions. The interjector then rose and apologised. He said, however, that he knew soldiers’ widows in Wellington who were not getting the pension the Minister said they were. At the close of the meeting the incident was again referred to by Mr Armstrong. “I am very sorry for the incident tonight,” he said. “I don’t object to being told that I am incorrect, but when a man I lie he will get it back. If somebody says I lie, that hurts. I don’t think the chap meant it in that way.” Another interjector: He said it. Mr Armstrong: I am very sorry for the retort on my part.