ENEMY ALIENS AND PRISONERS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16147, 27 February 1918, Page 5

ENEMY ALIENS AND PRISONERS.

TO THK EUI'IOr. Otf "THE TfHESiI. ' Six, —After reading tho evidence given in regard to the Motuihi enquiry published in the "Press," ono wonders iiow long the people of Now Zealand are going to tolerate the mismanagement and ignorance displayed by tiie military autnorities. 'iiiey seem to have treated the Germans in their charge more or less as a joke. One hears of launches going backwards and forwards to the island from Auckland carrying parties for dances and champagne suppers-, which lasted until the eariy hours of the morning. One hears of the telephone wires between the Defence Office and tho island being tapped and all communications being listened to by the prisoners. One of a swofd being lent to a Gorman Count, ! and proserved meats and bombs being made there. Is this lax control going on in Lyttclton ? Are visitors going to be allowed free, or practically free, access to the island? Ono already hoars rumours of happenings on tho island which would very -well bear looking into. Tho escape of the German prisoners from Motuihi is tho biggest disgraco New Zealand has? ever had, and one dreads to think what those of our boys at the front will think ■when they hoar of the carelessness of our military authorities. The Dominion at tho present time seems to be a happy home for Germans, Austrians, and other aliens. They even occupy Government positions at good salaries, instead of being interned in camps and made to at least earn their keep. Ido not advocate treating tho Germans in the same manner as the British find Allied troops, have been treated by them, for in this way we would only doscend to their level, but at least they 'might he put to some useful work. I think tho people of New Zealand ■would be interested to know what it lias already I cost the country to keep these Germans as prisoners, and what it is costing per day to keep them in Lyttelton. I think if people realised the cost to tho Dominion, and then thought of the treatment the prisoners of the Allies have received, and what they have suffered at the hands of the Germans, they "would rise as a whole and demand some more drastic treatment than has been meted out to tho enemy in our midst. I was glad to see in the Press of tho 19th instant that a public meeting had been held in Napier to petition tho Government to remove all aliens from the Government service, and 1 understand that another petition on the same lines, containing tho signatures of 5000 women in tho Auckland district has "been presented to liis Excollency the Governor during tho past few days". I hope the other centres will follow r this good example and succeed in having all aliens removed from our midst.—Yours, etc., ARTHUR MORTEN. COERCING THE MAORIS. TO THE EDITOR OV "THE PRESS " Sir, —Without a word of comment or a sign of dissent the Maoris of the South Island may be credited in the byelection with having turned down' the advice tendered them by Sir J. Carroll and his henchman, Mr Geo. Witty. At the very first election in the South Island, fifty years ago come April, the Maoris made a dignified beginning in election work. Their first meeting was addressed by supporters of the candidates in the absence of those who weie to l>o nominated for election, and at tho end the Natives divided to both sides of the hall to ascertain who was tho most popular candidate. One or two persons offered to assist that election with speeches, which the Maoris declined. Since those days they have been circularised by busybodies as to how they should vote, and on ono occasion, which is recorded in "Hansard," a Minister by telegraph, on the eve of an election, requested the Maoris to vote for his friend. The Natives would probably have voted otherwise, as they did this time. The emissaries who have been going from kaianga to kaianga proclaiming the edict that all must vote for the candidate alleged to have been selected by the National Ministry have been, let us hope, made to feel very small at their fruitless, as well as expensive, mission. To listen to Mr Witty, it was as good as a play— sometimes with veiled threats and at other times with plausible begging words asking the Maoris to do as ho told them. One wondered why and wherefore an election was held, and concluded that to avert the catastrophe of an anti-Liberal candidate being returned the seat for the South Island ought to have been filled by Ordcr-in-Council popping Henare Parata into the vacant place. The South Island Maori election is tho most complete piece of Native diplomacy and the best joke of the century. When the light went out at the last meeting at which the. Liberal emissaries besceched and prayed the elected candidate to foreswear his independence for Liberal servility, it would be interesting to know whether the electors really, intended to immerse them in a duck pond. Perhaps G. Witty may some day . entertain the House with what was goinc to happen when the lights went out. —Yours, etc., MUNCHAUSEN.