LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 279, 19 August 1920, Page 5

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

"MAORILAND WORKLR" AND

DISLOYALTY

Sir,—The weather has been very "woepy" of late, so that may account for the laohrymoso accents of your various correspondents on the above question. First, you permitted us to gaze on the tear-stained laments of "Disgusted" and 'Fabian"; Inter, you intfroduced the aloof and olympian Eraser, M.P., wringing his Pilate-like hands, and, whilst shedding "tears from the depths of 6ome divine despair," stating that he is "compelled" to dissociate the Labour Parity from tho condemned article nnent the break-up of the British Empire in relation to Ireland. And lastly, you allowed the prolifio discoverers of "mares 1 - nesfs" and tho indefatigable trailers of herrings odorous and red—otherwise tho "Welfare League"—to push their curious wares into the faces of your readers. A formidable assault truly! Let us see. The Labour Party, having emerged from the front trenches occupied during ilhe elections, is at present "in billots," where a certain healthy discontent is not only permissablo but desirable, buV it iB an impertinence for the Welfare League to advise "labour" on how to conduct its future operations. But to come to tho poirilV If it be "disloyal" to pray for the break-up of the present British Empire, I am afraid I must refer your cor- ' respondents to many "good men and true" in Britain. They need' only peru 6© tno files of sound journals like tlia "New Witness" (where the renowned G. K.. CEesifcrton holds forth), the "New Stfltesman," "Land and Water," "Nation," and many others, to find far Beverer comment and castigation: than were ever dealt out by the terrible "Maoriland Worker." I make bold to say thai a, British or any other "Empire" that uses the machine-guns of General Dyer in India, of Allenby in Egypt, that' is discovered guarding such tlimes as oil-wells in Mesopotamia and Persia; that plays 6uoh Macchiavellian charlatanry alike in Poland and Soviet , and that has suoh a blemished record in Ireland, does not require "bieaking-up": it has already reached an advanced 6tage of decomposition, a Sir, I have just returned'from a, sis/months' visit to Britain, and one of the first tihings that struck me on making reacquaintance with your pages was a report of the delegation to Mr. Massey headed by Mr. Holland on the question of the conscientious objectors, wherein the Prime Minister enunciaiiM the doctrine of "countrvj right or wrong" 'and "country every time." I need hardly point out that this is the ouifirorn chauvinistic creed of race-hatred that caused the recent war. How very different were Mr. Massey's sentiments in August, 1914! In those distant days he spoke of the cause of right; he urged us to go to defend small nationalities, etc. A man cannot bo "loyal" to both ilhcse ideals. As one of the soldiers that went to fight for what has proved a myth, I want to say (Oiat the blood-stain? on the grand old Union Jack .have quite obliterated the white and blue. Red is right! i I sorrowed also to note your attitude Awards Lenin and, Soviet Russia. In Britain opinion is veering round with enormous speed in tho direction of sympathy for the struggle of the Russian people after the pr/iaWe centuries of Czaristic misrule. Already Lenin luie emerged from the fearful calumnies that still disgrace the pages (more in sorrow than in anger be it written) of the New Zealand Press. Tie "retrospective eyes of after-days" may refuse to see Lloyd George, Churchill, Clemenceau, and President Wilson on account of tho colossal figure of Lenin. Who can say that "our children's ohildren" may not transfuse the clouds,of abuse into a glory-garland round his solemn brow akin id the wounding halo of tho conquering Galilean, whose "gloom of passion" in tho mournful garden and whose weary end on the darkened Hill speak in thunderous accents on the futility of contemporaneous judgments!—! ani, etc.,

PHILIP KING. [Mr. King, we understand, is, or was, employed on: the "Maoriland Worker," and wo print! his letter as a specimen of the views current in certain quarter's. It should be noted that the Amritsar incident, etc., -are quoted as being sufficient to justify the break-up of the British Empire. At the same time Lenin—under whom death-dealing and massacre are normal incidents of Bolshevist rule, and who has made the Russian worker a conscript working under martial law—is revered as the greatest statesman of the day and almost'blasphemously compared to Christ. How much in the way of reason or commonsense can be expected from persons whose judgment is so warped and distorted as this?]