IMPERIAL IMPOSTURE

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 72, 27 March 1933, Page 6

IMPERIAL IMPOSTURE

(To the Editor.)

Sir> —According to an .-epitomised report appearing in Tuesday's ''Post" a . Jlr. F. W. Doidgc, who ia described as "hon" secretary of the Empire Crusade,"< delivered the first of a series of addresses in this country under the auspices of the Auckland Rotary Club. I noticed .that this gentleman on his arrival at Sydney recently was given a Ion" "interview"^ by the "Sydney Morniug Herald," and that he was allowed to broadcast an address, while Mr. Huie, secretary ,of the Henix George Club, in Sydney, wa3 refused the right to reply to him. .We in this -'country do. not require to be.1 told-that. .Lord Beaverbrook is a Canadian millionaire who, • through the good offices of Mr. Bonar Law, found his way into the House of Lords during the wnr, that he controls what is popularly called the Beaverbrook Press, and that some time ago he-initiated a so-called crusade for Free Trade within the Empire. The cable agent has never condescended to allow the people of this country to know, however, that Lord Beaverbrook is an enemy o£ the League of Nations, that he maintains a constant vendetta against it in his papers. Lord Beaverbrook would have the British Empire declare fiscal war for all time against so much o£ the world as does not happen to be included in the British Empire. It isf a historical fact that the baneful heresy known in modern clays as Protection invariably acquires its strougest impetus from war. During the late war Protectionists were careful to take advantage of the world-wide insanity which has left civilisation a partial wreck. J-rttwithstanding that fifteen years have elapsed since the Peace Treaty vas signed, the ikeal warfare that was born

of the war is still going on, and today we behold the humiliating spectacle of civilised men, as it were, snarling at each other behind barbed-wire entanglements. Not the least humiliating fact in connection with the whole sorry display of human folly is the helpless attitude of ou;' so-called political leaders. In this country, for example, upwards of 50 per cent, of our tax revenue is now derived from the tariff. Yet our own tariff-mongers are not satisfied, for, in fact, it is impossible to satisfy them, and we have socalled statesmen who defend duties ou such vital necessaries as bread!

Obviously the most pressing necessity for us is an abatement of our tariff, not merely against Australia, Canada, or Britain, but against the world—that great world which is greater even than the British Empire. Such a policy requires courage,, however, and courage ia the last quality to be looked for in our timorous politicians. In the face of this absurd and humiliating situation, however, we are to be now asked to endure a crusade by one of Lord Beavubrook'a emissaries.

I have always understood, by the way, that the Rotary Club was an institution standing for peace and goodwill among men—all men. Accordingly I am not a little aurprieed to read of an address under its auspices in course of which! the speaker made a pointed attack on the United States, the home of'Botary. May I I inquire if the English-speaking Union means to allow this crusade to go on without a protest?—l am, etc., . P. J. O'EEGAN. March 27. •