PARLIAMENT AND THE WAR.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 22 May 1916, Page 2

PARLIAMENT AND THE WAR.

(To the Editor). Sir, —In the holocausts and other horrors of the present war exist a thousand reasons for tho exercise of v"ee •thotigiit, and the utterance of broadly l>a«ed opinion. Do wo find indications of tho formerP' Very seldom. Do wo see or hear the latter P Too seldom. The predominant features in our public life of to-day are the disposition to. mistake ranting protestations for patriotism .and the idea- tliat to v-ali every open-minded ibeing a pro-Gerainn ia tho last possible word from either side in the argument. In those sentences I ha.vo put {prosaically, I ad-

Mit) the 'principal' and regrettable features of New Zealand's political and social life. There does exist in New Zealand an undercurrent of better-liasmcd thought and mure just opinion, but in the widespread and truculent clamours of-the New Zealand sansculottes who re heard daily, 'in Parliament and outside of- it, the wiser amongst us perforce wait for the incipient liellhroth to bubble to its final stage of (let ns hope) ineffective obulVu'iioy. Is this great war to confer on the earth a lasting good? is the subjugation of Prussian militarism to ensure a last r ng peace for the nations of Europe? Frankly, I doubt it, though none more than myself desires to see an end made to the strident, overweening, class-be-gotten absolutism that masquerades ; n the guise of Germany's expansion policy. So far as I read the present signs, the position of the world-wide

nfiiot is on« of impasse, and within a few months' time the struggle may come to an untimely end through inwillingness of the world's financiers +o advance sufficient moneys to enable '.ho several combatants to wage a further year of mu*u»Hy deetpioiivi# w«f»r« that probably would prove as ineifect/vo as *h« two yaars' period nor elapsed. Germany. to my mind already has readied a stage of financial exhmi.>tion that will keep her unaggressive for many years to come; and, in a lesser degree the same remark ipjplios to gur allies and ourselves. Why then, do we see throughout Australia and New Zealand all this foverisli iiiixiety to swell the roinforceraeii-tor' Ii no one amongst our Parliament >epresentatives brave enough to prop und this question on the floor of the House? It is a 'pertinent question. What has fceea the result of ali tlie great endeavours of the overseas defence departments 60 far? Obviously, to stimulate the German aggressors to greater activities in recruit Stag at home • and in the. stirring up of sedition in other plan>es. Understand, • sir, I do not write*-this letter out of a desire to discourage legitimate recruiting; I simply claim my right as. a Briton to exercise that liberty of speech, and that fearless proniulcation ot ideas, that is the Briton's birthright and which 'should be his guarded privilege.

To my' miad it is clear that failure of money—and that alone—is the only chance that exists ror tjie termination of this great war within a decade; and il that ifi so, where are we likely to end if we persist in the present mad system of welling -into the firing line every available young main, and evsry available middle-aged man, to the detriment of tht primary productivity wlwch alone can secure tor us a stable finance? Wo in New Zealand,, we in Australia.,, are striving to achieve too •much, and there.is a risk that we vet may tread in the present steps of unhappy Turkey and be calling to the colours our men of 82 years end downwards. Such a prospect, T assert, would cause a diminution of favour >n the cases of one or two fire-eating Parliamentarians I could name, atid in the cases of numberless Wellington citizens—not to go further afield. Now Zealand has need today of a- man In Parliament possessed of the courage of John VViilkea, and a constituency in Vow Zealand with .mottle equal to that of the electors of Middlesex in the period from 1760 to 1770. Then we nnglit have tlie spectacle of a fearless rep re • senibative af the people speaking the truth that was in him, and be saved from the spectacle of an olbseqtiiious House conniVing at the continuance ol au exhausting guarantee that never should have been given. Instead or ibhis, we find our Parliamentarians erasing the real issues and clashing in pole- • mic arguments ■ about • voluntaryism versus conscription ,• while all the time the dominion is bleeding in the agrarian sector, which not one member of Parliament has the oourage to diagnose. We see a man of mixed blood—the Wood of a nation that has found Bagland already and may fight her again— rising seven times daily in the House of Representatives (and in public print, where complaisant editors seem to wolcome him) to stir up teelings ot uncharitable regard—nay, hatred - against all men of German descent, let lone men of Germain "birth now naturalised and resident in '.New Zealand. Does that politioal Jack-in-t)he-T!ox to whom I refer ever reflect upon the fact that the nation from which in part be springs again may find "her interests conflicting with Great Britain's? in that event, his present campaign of j hatred and uncharitabJeneM toward* all men of Geiiman descent may reflect itself with un/pleasant results for him and his half-compatriota. "As he rows. so he may reap." New Zealand sliould have no toleration ior such irratknal lemagogues. We ueedi sound load' ig at the present time; not the ad oaptandura vulgus appeal of 1 B,lc h public, misrepresentatives ot the people as the member of Parliament to whom ( al- \ lude is proving himself*to be.—l am etc,. . HENRY SA'MTT-Eli MtFNSON. Adelaide Read. Wellington, May 10, 1916.