Necessity of War

Five months ago New Zealand dared a risky experiment: suspension of civil liberties to deal with a Red attack.

New Zealand (pop. 1,850,000) lives by her seaborne trade. But for 16 years New Zealand's ports had been in the grip of the Communist-led Wraterside Workers' Union. * When the Cominform signaled a stepped-up cold war against the democracies four years ago, the union's headlock on New Zealand trade quickly slipped into a stranglehold.

Tough Regulations. Last February, faced with a new dock strike, conservative Prime Minister Sidney Holland decided he would not permit the Communists to use democracy in order to destroy it. He announced a state of national emergency, declared the Waterside Workers an illegal organization, seized its funds. Soldiers, sailors and airmen were ordered to load ships.

Tough, able Sidney Holland invoked a set of emergency regulations. He used his powers sparingly, but in some instances suspended the right of assembly, public speech or public print. Newspapers and radio stations were forbidden to interview strikers. Other unions were not allowed to hold public discussions of the strike issues or on the emergency regulations. Anyone giving aid & comfort to strikers or their families was threatened with jail. But police did not lay a finger on the Red bosses.

Most New Zealanders quietly accepted such curbs of their liberties as a necessity of war. Miners, meat-freezing and hydroelectric workers struck in sympathy with the dockers and against the emergency regulations, but there was little violence, few arrests.

Slow Stranglehold. The union bosses hoped to defeat Holland by dislocating New Zealand trade. Thousands of tons of perishable goods piled up in warehouses. Farmers lost money, local factories closed down for lack of raw materials. Sugar supplies ran out, homes were without heat, gas and power were rationed. Trade loss: an estimated $200,000,000.

But Holland stubbornly refused to deal with the Red unionists, set his hopes on a new Communist-free dockers' union, sponsored by the government. By last week, the Red strike was broken. Miners, meat-freezing and hydroelectric workers voted to go back to work. The Waterside Workers' Union had virtually ceased to exist; its Communist leaders were thoroughly discredited.

The Reds stalemated, Prime Minister Holland was expected to revoke the emergency regulations. New Zealanders felt that democracy, stern though its measures were, had won an important victory.

*The dockers' unions in New Zealand and Australia maintain close contact with Communist Harry Bridges' International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union on the U.S. West Coast, in Vancouver and Hawaii, with them exercise effective control over Pacific shipping.

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