ADDRESS BY POLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 February 1940, Page 5

ADDRESS BY POLE

CHALLENGED BY WAIPAWA R.S.A. CRITICISM OF BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WAIPUKURAU, February 10. Following a public address by a Pole, Dr. A, Reifer, formerly of Brunn University, Moravia, but now employed by the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Waipawa and District Returned Soldiers' Association unanimously adopted the following resolution: "That this association deplores' the fact that Dr. A. Reifer, a civil servant, should be permitted to give public talks which, in the opinion of this association, are definitely detrimental to the Government’s recruiting campaign, and regrets that Iho Hon. W. E. Barnard, a returned soldier, should be giving Dr. Reifer his apparent support.” The association further resolved that the attention of the Minister of Agriculture should be drawn to Dr. Reifer’s activities. Dr. Reifer is a plant research expert employed by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Barnard, presided at a meeting of the Napier branch of the Labour Patty, when Dr. Reifer, who is a Pole, and a .Doctor of Science of Brunn University, criticised Britain’s foreign policy, saying that Poland was already being oppressed by a regime no better than Hitler's.

He also alleged that Finland constituted a menace to Soviet Russia, which was- only defending itself against the Imperial ism of capitalistic States.