COMPROMISE OR EVASION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3190, 14 September 1917, Page 6

COMPROMISE OR EVASION

Sir,—lf ever there was a case of evasion, surely the 1 National Government takes the palm at the present time by its slick evasion of tho liquor .question, for a:; Balzac truly says, "Evasion is unworthy of us, and is always the intimate of equivocation." At election time our politicians shout out their war cry, 'Government for tho people by the people, but once safe back m Parliament the cry changes to "Government for ■ tile brewers )>y the—er—National Government." The cry has beeiv echoing from the North Cape to the Bluff from a hundred thousand throats to close the hotels and public-houses at G o'clock, and thousands of wives and mothers who behoved the old.war cry at election time fully' expected their petition to lie heard, but are now once again cast into despair. Since-tho. present Government has shown its hand so clearly, first by kicking' the Efficiency Board out, because it dared, to speak tho truth about tho Liquor, trade, and secondly by ignoring the popular cry of the people, there are only two courecs left open to it, either' a general election or else a. referendum to lie taken immediately on the liquor question.—l am, etc., FOLLOW THE KING.