"UNFIT FOR CITIZENSHIP."

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2783, 30 May 1916, Page 6

"UNFIT FOR CITIZENSHIP."

Sir,—When, the Hon. W. F. Massey penned his reply to the secretary of tho Coal Miners' Union which upholds the adverse resolution of tho United Federation of Labour re compulsion, he leaped' at one bound across the gulf that divides the patriot from the politician. He likewise penned 'a message to tho people of New Zealand, employer and employee alike, that deserves to Ixs printed and circulated on card and poster from Maria Van Diemen to Halfmoon Bay. Reprint it again for tho Umpire's sake:— "In the hour of national peril the man who declines to recognise and discharge his obligations to the State conclusively demonstrates his unfitness for citizenship. "(Signed) W. F. M ASSET." These are the times that try men's souls. I suppose we arc nil democrats, but the hour of national peril lias only brought out "cant and humbug'' as the characteristic of thoso who parade in politics and out of it tho soecial care of the "Plebs." J-here is not another man in tho House rtose patriotism would not have been diluted with compromise in dealing with' that situation. In that forceful, uncompromising expression of the Prime Minister, I see the spirit awakening in this Dominion (and 1 trust in the whole Erapire) that will sooa convince our enemies abroad and in our midst that at im iirG ta ' ;l '"o things seriously, lhe first democrat laid it down: "Individuals are nothing. The State is all. Io offend the State is to die." So death to the citizenship of those who offend tho state. The colliers that the lied Federation represents in the majority are loyal and good; their actions prove it. The few "leaders'' who make all tho dust will- not he reached -by th.e Compulsion Bill, more's the pity. "He who works for the people will be destroyed by the people," is probably true, and probably accounts for the long existence of the "cant and humbug" section of the House who see only in thn national peril opportunities to create and maintain party prejudice with an eye on the next, election. A bas, the politician! Ho works for himself, and not for the people, and so escapes the doom of tho true democrat. The whole Dominion should glory in the genuine, unalloyed patriotism which from time to time characterises the utterances of the Hon. W. F. Massey. Hats off to a true patriot. Believe me they aro rare!—l am, etc., ■"BRITISH."