BAN ON MEETINGS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21215, 11 September 1940, Page 9

BAN ON MEETINGS

COMMUNISTS IN PARK AUTHORITY QUESTIONED DOMAIN BOARD’S POSITION “I am not going to have the Police Department or anyone else say that I am not telling the truth and I am going to have this matter cleared up right now,” stated Mr F. A. Swarbrick, chairman of the Hamilton Domain Board, at a meeting of the board last night when referring to a letter from the Waikato Trades Council of the Federation of Labour concerning the stopping of Communist Party meetings in Seddon Park. The letter stated that on inquiry from the Hamilton Borough Council the Trades Council was told that the police were responsible for having the Communist Party’s meetings stopped at Seddon Park, but the Minister for the Department had notified the New Zealand Federation of Labour that the police department was not responsible. The Trade Council’s letter asked the board to state on whose authority the meetings were stopped, as although it was not particularly concerned with the Communist Party it was concerned with the rights of workers. Application Granted “We received an application from the Communist Party in October, 1939, for permission to hold meetings at Seddon Park and I instructed the secretary to grant the permission, my action being confirmed at a later meeting of the board,” commented Mr Swarbrick. “However, in January, 1940, the town clerk rang me and said he had been requested by the Inspector of Police to stop the holding of pacifist meetings in Garden Place and the Communist Party meetings at Seddon Park. He told me that he had told the Inspector that Seddon Park was not under the control of the council but that he would pass the request on to the Domain Board.

“Next day, I think it was, I went down to the station and saw the police concerning the request,” added Mr Swarbrick. “I told them that it was a public park and we had no power to stop meetings. The police asked me if we had a by-law that would cover the matter and I told them that we had no legal authority to enforce the request. In the end I said the board could write the Party and say that the permission previously granted had been withdrawn, and the police said to do so.”

“That is all I know about the matter and I am quite prepared to take whatever responsibility is mine,” concluded Mr Swarbrick, in moving that the Trades Council be notified accordingly. The motion was carried.