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Death of Arthur Cook
It was announced recently that Mr.
Arthur Cook was missing as the
result of enemy action in the Atlantic.
Mr. Cook was New Zealand's dele
gate to the Empire Trade Union Con
ference. The ship by which he was \
travelling was torpedoed. Mr. Cook I
was last seen on a raft, and although
several survivors were landed, he is
among the missing, and his death is
presumed.
Mr. Cook was for 18 years secre
tary of the New Zealand Workers'
Union, a position he was forced to
relinquish last year because of fail
ing eyesight. When the union reluc
tantly accepted his resignation at its
26th annual conference, it showed its
appreciation of his invaluable ser
vices by unanimously electing him a
life member.
Mr. Cook, who became secretary
of the N.Z. Workers' Union in June.
1924, represented the union at the
1921 conference of the A.W.IT. jn
Sydney and also the workers of New
Zealand at the International Labor
Conference at Geneva in 1928. Whilst
on a period of sick" leave, Mr. Cook
underwent an eye operation in Syd
ney in 19 40 and was a visitor to the
annual conference of the A.W.U.,
which was in session at the time.
Mr. Cook was an outstanding
Labor figure and. in addition to his
official activities, wrote many articles
for the New Zealand "Standard,"
from one of which we quote:
"What the future holds for us is
difficult to visualise, but I, as an
individual, have no fear of the !
future, provided we in the Movement!
sti«k to the ideals for which our
great Labor Movement stands. That
we are going to be confronted with !
many difficulties during the next few;
years must be plain to everyone, but
no matter how insurmountable these
difficulties may appear as they arise,
they can be overcome. We are at
present in the midst of a brutal war
that must come to an end sooner or
later. If we only had a properly
organised International Labor Move
ment, hostilities would cease at short
notice. However. end they must
sometime, and instead of our Move
ment remaining in the doldrums as
it is to-day, it should be more active
than ever before in the world's his
tory in planning the future for our
people and our country. We appear
to have lost vision.
"The Labor Movement, not only
in New Zealand but in other parts
of the world too. should be engaged
at present in looking into the future
and planning for a world-wide Inter
national Movement that must he
brought about in order to secure
peace in our time and in our chil
dren's time. We should he planning
for the overthrow of a system fthe
system of capitalism) that for gen
erations has involved the world in
wars, misery, famine, starvation and
want and replace it with a system
that will improve the conditions and
replace hatred with love. A system
of that kind can, and must, be built."
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