The 1951 waterfront dispute between waterside workers and their employers lasted for 151 days, from February to July. On 21 February the government declared a state of emergency. Throughout the dispute the Special Branch of the New Zealand Police tried to monitor the activities of the locked-out workers and their supporters. This report from Constable L. W. Wise describes a meeting of the Auckland Waterside Women's Auxiliary, a support group for the Watersiders' Union. Wise was soon recognised, illustrating the difficulties of operating undercover in the small society of 1950s New Zealand. A number of those attending the meeting were subjects of the Special Branch's 'subversive history' sheets. The 'Gordon Harold Anderson' identified in the report was Bill Anderson, a prominent communist and a union leader from the 1950s through to the 1990s.