LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2482, 8 June 1915, Page 8

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

• 9 TO CORRESPONDENTS. All letters to tho editor must bo accompanied by tho full names and addrosses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, but as ovidenco of good faith. PERSECUTION. Sir, —To anyone who has lived in Dunedin for the past 1.5 or 20 years tho set which is being made against tho linn of iiallcnstoin Bros, and Co. (Limited), and the business with which thoy are connectci! is almost inexplicable. As one who lias been brought moro or loss into contact with the members of tho firm from tho time when tho lata Mr. Bendix liallensteiu founded tho Now Zealand Clothing Factory, and thereafter ostablished throughout New Zealand tho retail branches of that hive of industry which has for several docades given steady employment to many hundreds of our young, people, I should be glad if you will allord me spaco for a few words on tho position which has arisen. Tho late Mr. Hallenstein and his brothers, whoso combined capital was the means of starting tho clothing factory business and its retail branches, originally came to Australia, and tho foundation of their fortunes was there laid. Mr. Bendix Hallenstein came to Dunedin from Melbourne in tho very earliost years of the gold discoveries in Ofcago, and, settling in Queonslown, by steady application to the general 'storelcceping business he started in that goldiields township, prospered. Thereafter he moved to Dunedin, and, as mentioned above, in conjunction with his brothers, the whole of them having been for years naturalised British subjects, put a largo amount of capital into tho new clothing factory venture. This capital cannot with a shadow of justification be caJled German capital. It was made in British colonies by naturalised British subjects. In like maimer the Hallenstein capital was instrumental in founding the Drapery Importing Company, familiarly known as the D.1.C., and this business also has given employment to large numbers of men and women in the various cities in New Zealand in which its branches are established. In the course of nature tho original founders of fcheso largo industrial concerns passed away, and their respective shares in the businesses came into the hands of sons and daughters, born in Australia or New Zealand. Mr. Bendix liallenstoin's daughters married gentlemen who are directors of Hallenstein Bros, and Co. (Limited) and of tho D.1.C., one of them a German who for ovor twenty-five years has been a naturalised British subject. To anyone who knows Mr. Fels or tho present-day members of the Hallenstein family it is utterly preposterous to say that any one of tliom is anything but absolutely lo.val and true to British interests. If good citizenship and extreme liberality in giving to all worthy objects that come before the community for help count for anything, then the businesses of the New Zealand Clothing Factory and D.I.C. should be as heartily and genuinely supported as those of any other traders in the community. As to the loyalty of tho head of these firms to the British nation whoso subjects thoy are. it is of tho most complete type. Tliey are in the first rank with The many patriotic men in this city Vho have devoted time and money to the Empire's cause. Hallenstein Bros. (Limited) came forward at tho beginning of tho war with the handsome subscription of £500 to the patriotic funds; tihey from the outset encouraged their employees to volunteer for the Expeditionary Force, undertaking to pay all who enrolled half pay for six months and to keep their positions open until their return. The personal views of tho various members of tho firm are, I know, so strongly abhorrent of the inhuman practices of tho Germans in the conduct of the war, and their desire for tho triumph of th? Allies is so whole-hearted and earnest, as I also know from personal conversations with them—extending with Mr. Fels to his consent to the enlistment of his only son with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force—that no fair-minded man can with a knowledge of these things a'uy longer harbour suspicion or doubt as to their genuineness. It is, then, cruel and unworthy of members of this community to give their countenance to the efforts that are being made to damage the businesses of fellow-citizens who are loyal subjects of the -Empire; it is a departure from the traditionary British fairplay of which we are all more or less inclined to boast, and it is undoubtedly high time that the thoughtless "and unthinking should fairly consider the position and act in a spirit moro worthy of their nationality, and of the dictates of fair-play and justice. As for the cowardly and vindictivo mob who in Wangamii recently disgraced themselves by destroying the property of men whose shoes they are not worthy to black, they ore only deserving of scorn and contempt. As. Mr. Asquith has said, it is conduct of that kind that is a reproach to the nation.—l am, etc., GEORGE FSNWICK.