BANNED LITERATURE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 3, 28 September 1918, Page 8

BANNED LITERATURE

Sir,—Another Quixote has entered the lists in defence of the Government's prohibition of Protestant literature. Tho (former defender, the Hon. tho Minister of Customs, has been unhorsed by public opinion . throughout tho Dominion and "lies biting the dust. Now Sir James Allen, clad in the armour of Sir Francis Bell, has'set his lance for the unlovely cause.'. "There has been so much misrepresentation," he says, "of the Government's action . . . that it seems desirablo to state the position officially." . We thought Mr. Myers" had done that already vjlierii ho replied, per medium of the Press, to tbo resolution carried at the Auckland Town Hall, condemning his actious in this matter, and expressing loss of confidence in him as a Parliamentary representative. A resolution which, strangely enough, was not considered worthy of notice by the Auckland representatives of the Press Association, and was not therefore telegraphed throughout the Dominion as. tho resolutiocs df small groups of railway employees are just now. Sir James Alleii, however, merely recites the same words and expresses the same defence as did Mr. Myers. He adds nothing to what .has been already'said for the Government except that "there has been so much misrepresentation with regard to the Government's action." May I ask: What are the misrepresentations complained of? Tho P.P.A. has represented exactly what has taken place. Literature has been hold up by the Government which has free circulation in England, Canada, Australia, and the United States. It is not considered in those countries that, even in "the perilous times we we. now enduring," to'quote Sir James Allen's phrase, such literature ought to. bo banned. Perhaps, of course, Sir James Allen regards Mr. Lloyd George and President Wilson, Sir Robert Borden and Mr. Hughes as wanting in patriotism—and in (consideration for the Roman Church, by their failure to follow his Government's lead in curtailing the rights of Protestants. The New Zealand Government holds the unhappy distinction o'f being the only Government in the Empire, or amongst the Allies, to treat with scorn. Wie rights and liberties of Protestants in the name of patriotism and in the interests .of the Roman Church. There are books banned by New Zealand's Ministers that are loyal and enthusiastically British and pro-Ally. They do not touch on any aspect of sexual immorality whatever: They deal with Rome's attitude to the Kaiser and to the Allies. They reveal Rome's intrigues in every part of tho world in connection with the present war. There is no honest justification' for their prohibition. It is an ac.t worthy of the "Star Chamber" days of evil memory. The whole of the War Regulations relating to the Press and literature appear to have been modelled on the infamous decree of that chamber's "Order ftr the Better Regulation of the Press.',' The one would be difficult to distinguish from the other were they printed side by side in these columns. The Bpirit is the same and the effect is the same, and, we may venture to believe, tho inspiring cause is the same —in both instances. •" It may ho, however, that the Regulations owe to Germany their inspiration—from the Edict of Spires by which'Charles'V of Germany, and Pope Clement endeavoured to crush out Protestantism on the Continent in the sixteenth ■'. century. Whatever the source of the inspiration or the model upon which these regulations have been framed, they have' restored the standards of tho evil preRefonnation days, and which our forbears gave their blood to destroy as our soldiers are giving their blood to destroy Kaiserism to-day. Protestants in New Zealand apparently have to fight, again the old battle, and we assure Sir. James Allen that we have the same spirit and the same love and tho €ame courage as lived in the heart of the men and women of those stern old days; and, though we.do not take the sword, we have the ballot-box by which tyranny is crushed and "Star Chamber" methods swept out of existence. The loved of liberty will override all party considerations, as it did in Germany when the Protestants abandoitd the King • who presumed to be their tyrant, and will sweep out of existence a Government which has resurrected his methods.—l am, etc.,' • \ HOWARD ELLIOTT. Wellington, September 25.