A FOUL SUGGESTION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 167, 9 April 1919, Page 6

A FOUL SUGGESTION

I The exposure made, at tho public meeting in the Town Hall last evening of-the publication of a leaflet in which it is sought to associate those connected with, the prohibition movement in New Zealand with tho worst Bolshevik excesses in Russia is calculated to do as much injury to the cause in whichthc leaflet-was issued as any single incident in the present campaign. The leaflet itself , is.one of the foulest pieces of electioneering it has been our ill-for-tune to come across in public affairs in New Zealand. . It bluntly and grossly states the reported conditions under which the debauching of women is' permitted in Russia 'under Bolshevist rule, and implies that this was tho outcome of the deliberate efforts of tho Bolsheviks to sow discontent by engineering prohibition. The misrepresentation of the facts of the situation, in Russia dpes not. concern us. According- to all the evidence available the Bolsheviks had as little to do wi*4v the Tsar's edict prohibiting the sale of liquor,as did the writer of the leaflet himself. What ,we 'do protest against, and what'we are sureevery decent-minded citizen, whether he be for or against the liquor trade, will pritcst against, is the foul -slander that in New Zealand those who aro working in the cause of prohibition have in view as their goal Bolshevism, the debauching of women, and all that anarchy stands for. _ That prohibition is merely a preliminary step to these vile ends. That there _ is no doubt that this suggestion is made may be gathered' from tho closing sentences of the document in question, .which read as follows:

Bolsheviks havo their agents at work ir. New Zealand. They are following the tactics that proved successful in .Russia—-Prohibition first,' .Anarchy aHorwards. If you don't wish to help them vote Continuance.

If this class of thing is to be tolerated in public controversy without protest then decent men and women may well hesitate to take a sharo in those public activities which it is to the interests of all sections of the community' to encourage. . One dees not need to hold the same opinions as the prohibitionists to .appreciate the merit of their motives.