AN EMPHATIC DENIAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 September 1938, Page 4

AN EMPHATIC DENIAL

STATEMENT BY WAIRARAPA CANDIDATE. LABOUR PARTY AND RELIGION. In a further reply to the Upper Hutt committee of the Labour Party Mr J. F. Thompson, National . candidate for the Wairarapa, again denies the statement attributed to him by - that committee relating to the attitude of the Labour Party on questions of religion. “What I did say,” Mr Thompson states, “was that the National Party stood for the maintenance of the heritage handed down to us, namely, individual freedom, with freedom of speech and freedom of worship. I made no reference whatever to the Labour Party’s attitude on these matters. A member of the audience, whom I have since heard is an executive official of the Labour Party, asked the chairman if I would tell him when the Labour Party had restricted freedom of worship. ,The chairman of the meeting replied that I did" not allege that it had, and I also shook my head and denied the suggestion. “The meeting was a noisy one, and the matter has since grown in the mind of the person who asked the question and his associates. If the supporters of the Labour Party would only listen quietly at meetings of *« their opponents these misunderstandings would not arise. “I am prepared to stand by the statements I make, but I do object to having words put into my mouth and then asked to withdraw statements which I. neither made nor thought of making.”- , ■