The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 1913. ANTI-REFORMERS IN TROUBLE AGAIN.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1696, 12 March 1913, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 1913. ANTI-REFORMERS IN TROUBLE AGAIN.

The times arc obviously not good for the enemies of political reform. For many ,weeks they asserted loudly, in defiance of every assurance to the contrary, .that the Government had by its Land Bill robbed the State by presenting a valuable mineral gift to a. Southland lessee of the Crown. Two of their organs published, inside a month, something like a dozen each of violent editorials. It was even suggested that the Government had designedly effected a gross job. These articles have a ludicrous appearance now in the light of the judgment in which Mr. Justice Williams declared that the State had not parted with the minerals in this lease. We suggested weeks ago that the astonishing recklessness and fury with which these journals plunged into error in their passionate anxiety to damage the Government was possibly' due in part to a desire to cover up their grotesque misrepresentations of Mr. Allen's references in London to the idea of an expeditionary force. At first they represented that the idea was a new. one, a "surprise" "secretly" prepared by Mr. Allen;" and when we quoted Mr. Allen's detailed reference to the scheme in a speech in this city ,in December, the anti-Iteform journals fell back on their second line of slander by saying'that Mr. Allen "offered" "conscripts." It may be worth while reprinting a few passages from various articles in one of the most violent and indiscreet of these journals. These are only a few typical extracts from a multitude of articles written in the same strain:

''As a matter of fact, it is useless for the Hon; AV. I' 1 . Massey, or Major-General Godley, or the squatters' organ, or the independent eveninp: journal, or tho whole of them combined, to attempt to remove tho conviction in every thoughtful mind that the Hon. James Allen actually did make this offer of an expeditionary force of eiEht thousand men."

. . New Zealand will do (lie same again, and quickly, if tho occasion arises, but the men of our islands will eo to war voluntarily, and not as a forco compelled under a scheme put upon them in this surprise fashion-by' a'Minister flushed with the of his first official visit to London. Not as conscriptionists will the free men of this free country permit themselves to be shipped away at the whim of Mr. , Allen, or Mr. Masses', or all of the so-called 'Reform' party put together. Mr. Allen's presumptuous scheme, however, obviously leaves no room for such choice. It is a straicht-out offer of so many men, available at any time for military service in any part of the Empire." "iKnoring Parliament also, he lias offered the lives of 8000 of our young men who are submitting to compulsory military training on the crave assuranco that they will "be called 011 only for the defenco of their own country. This is a situation that New Zealand will not tolerate,"

For all this dishonest rubbish there was_ no warrant bf any sort. It was obvious to anybody with even a grain pf sense and honesty that . Me. Allen merely outlined, as he had outlined before (without anyone blaming him), the idea of a volunteer expeditionary force. ,Mit. A. M. Myers, ex-minister for Defence, approved the idea, and said: "As to Mr. Allen's remarks concerning the expeditionary force, in which enlistment would, of course, be entirely voluntary, I believe there would not be the slightest difficulty, if danger threatened our' Empire, in raising a. thoroughly-trained and well-equipped force." But the antiReform journals had to lie hard and keep at it. Now what are the facts? Mr. Allen arrived in London on the evening of January 30, -and on January 31 the Morning Post printed a column .interview with him,_ supplemented by an interview with Reutcr's representative. our readers will see for themselves (we print the . interview in another column exactly as it appears in the Morning Post) Mr. Allen made no "offer" as was alleged, but merely sjiid that New Zealand wants to be able to send an expeditionary force abroad if necessary. .He expressly added : "These men. will, of course, he volunteers." There'was never any doubt about the facts in any honest'mind. There was never any doubt in the minds even, of the anti-Reformers that Mr. Allen had said just, what he did say, but some of these people appear to have lost all their regard for honesty and fair play. The. two latest exposures of reckless misrepresentation on the part of these antiReform journals cannot fail to bring some discredit on those whose cause they espouse as well as on the papers themselves. ■ ■ ,