Communist Witch-Hunts Invoked

The third and final subgroup singled out for savage treatment and persecution was the Left, especially the CPNZ.

There was a general witch-hunting atmosphere during the early years of the war. Some examples - in September 1939, the Christchurch City Council banned open air meetings (the Mayor was Bab MacFarlane, the present Deputy-Mayor).

In March 1940 the Dunedin RSA pressured the owner of a left-wing bookshop to close it down. June 1940 - the Rangiora Borough Council resolved to weed 'subversive' books out of its town library. July - a WEA tutor was sacked by the Council of Victoria College for writing an anti-war leaflet the previous November. December - two leftist teachers were sacked by the Auckland Education Baord. And so on.

In mid 1940 police, acting on Fraser's instructions, warned the printers of 'Tomorrow', a left-wing publication produced in Christchurch, that they would be prosecuted if they didn't stop printing it. They stopped.

But the particular target of the Labour Government was the CPNZ which attacked the war as a capitalistic and imperialistic one from the start. There was a bitter irony in this, considering the past of some Cabinet Ministers (e.g. in 1921 Wally Nash had been convicted and fined for bringing banned Communist literature into the country.)

The CPNZ was under pressure from the out-bread of war - the censor held up mail, detectives sat in on meetings. A 1939 Labour Party circular said that the Party's National Executive ordered all members, branches and Labour Representation Committees to give no support to the CPNZ, the Friends of the Soviet Union, 'or any Communist auxiliary,' or publish any resolution or information that was not Government policy or attacked the Government.

'Under no circumstances shall any member, branch or LRC send any reports, information or letters to the 'People's Voice,' the Communist Party's official organ.'

Active persecution began in January 1940 - drunken soldiers attacked a joint CPNZ-pacifist meeting in Auckland, with 2 communists and the Rev. Ormond Burton being arrested as a result. Soldiers attended another CPNZ meeting that night, with one more arrest. The arrested Communists, including National Chairman Tom Stanley, were fined.

In February a CPNZ man was gaoled for a month with Burton after police broke up an anti-conscription meeting in Wellington.

Things hotted up considerably midway through the year - this can be seen by following the chequered career of Don McCarthy, publisher of the 'People's Voice' during these hectic few months.

In April he was one of 5 Auckland men charged under the censorship regulations for publishing 'subversive reports' arising out of the 'People's Voice' and leaflets. They were fined a total of 190 pounds (sterling). That same month he was ordered to pay 10 guineas costs on contempt of court charges because the 'People's Voice' had commented on the previous charges before they were heard. He was further charged with defamatory libel of Semple and other Cabinet Ministers as a result of a 'People's Voice' cartoon and editorial. The last legal issue of the 'People's Voice' in May lists him as 'the proprietor D. McCarthy, of His Majesty's Prison, Mt Eden.' He eventually got 2 months.