FARMERS & SABOTAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 December 1939, Page 7

FARMERS & SABOTAGE

MR SCRIMGEOUR’S CHARGES ! INDIGNANT DENIAL , BY UNION PRESIDENT. LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER. The following is a copy of a letter addressed to the Rt Hon the Prime Minister by the Dominion President of the Farmers' Union. Mr W. W. Mulholland. and dated December (>: — "On Sunday last. Mr C. G. Scrimgeour. Controller of Commercial Broadcasting, read from the 'Standard.' the official organ of the Labour Party, the following statements:— At the recent Dominion Conference of the N.Z. Farmers' Union detailed plans for sabotaging the production ol the Dominion were discussed in committee for two days and were defeated by a small majority only. Here are the plans which were submitted to the conference; That the farmers do not put the bulls with the cows or the rams with the ewes; That they turn the cream down the drains; That they refrain from going out for at least a fortnight; That they use transport as little as possible and not pay for it: That they buy as little stores as possible and not pay the storekeeper; That they use no subsidised labour and refuse to co-operate with the Government in any way; That they boycott the Centennial; That they picket the dairy factories and the petrol distributing stations. The headquarters of the Farmers' Union while issuing apparently friendly pronouncements has stirred up and is keeping alive a spirit of strong opposition." "I did not consider it necessary tc take any notice of the 'Standard’s article, but I must take strong exception to the official head of a Government Department repeating these incorrect and misleading statements over the air in a Dominion-wide hookup through a State utility which is the direct responsibility of a Minister. "The Dominion Conference referred to in the article' (a copy of which is enclosed herewith), took place in July (long before war appeared to be imminent). but this fact was suppressed and the inference deliberately given was that the conference had occurred since war broke out. "As chairman of the conference in question. I can inform you that no resolution embodying the 'detailed plans' referred to in the article was discussed by that conference. Yet thisalleged action of the Union was described as 'sabotage' of the Government's war effort although the Controller of Commercial Broadcasting must have known that the conference TOOK PLACE IN JULY. "This statement by the head of a State Department and the circumstances surrounding its making, suggests to the public of New Zealand that it was made with the authority and approval of the Government. "On behalf of the New Zealand Farmers' Union I formally ask you definitely to dissociate your Government from this action and these untrue statements. I further ask you to instruct the officer concerned to retract completely without further comment. the statements and inferences complained of, and to make that retraction with an appropriate apology next Sunday evening al the same hour and over the same stations as last week, and. finally. I ask that you cause the Controller to cease such unseemly conduct as he indulged in last Sunday evening for such action is either deliberate or reckless goading of the more restive elements among those attacked. —I am. etc.. W. W. MULHOLLAND. Dominion President."