"TRAITOROUS."

Horowhenua Chronicle, 20 June 1916, Page 3

"TRAITOROUS."

Sir, —Your article under the above heading in your issue of Monday (12th June) will not cause any feeling of profound astonishment to those among your readers who are aware of the peculiarly hitter opposition you have always displayed towards Mr Massey, but it will excite a feeling of genuine regret that the only organ of public opinion in this town sliould, at i/he present time, so lamentaibly fail to rise above petty and paltry political preJxjssessiona and prejudices. "We are willing to make liberal and gSnerous allowances for your prejudices, We are fully aware that Mr Massey is to you what Carthago was to Cato the Censor, but on this occasion you Have displayed neither good taste nor sound judgment, and have token a singularly inopportune way of venting your spleen. lT am suire that nearly all who read the extraordinary article in „the Thames Star felt with Mr Massey in tihe matter, land realized! that the freedom of the press has. in such times as the present, it just and proper limits. These limits have, 'beyond all question, been grossly overstepped by the Thames Star, and the editor has incurred the censure and reprobation of nil public spirited and patriotic citizens. I do not know (!) who the editor in question is, He appears to be a friend of yours, and we are informed that he is "the very personification of British spirit and not to say insularity," etc. These commendable characteristics could certainly not be deduced from his article which savours of "Hunlmnd" a league off. • In all probability, Mr Massey, in common with mo.st of us, never henird of him before, and it is by his article he muse stand or fall. It is hardly necessary to notice the obvious eagerness and complacency with which ho accepts the Teutonic version of the battle, and the insolent readiness he displays, at this distance, to disbelieve and discredit Admiral Jell face's ireport. It is not the duty of a patriot to minimise reverses, but it is bis duty to refrain from proclaiming and commenting on a disaster until he is sure of 'his faote. [We congratulate our correspondent, at this stage, on the accuracy of this last sentence, which is on almost vei'batini extract from our own article.—Editor.] /ou suggest that the article in question had its origin in "a revulsion of feeling sprung from heartfelt disappointment over the inability of the British Navy to show itself as tho inevitable aggregation of superior force and un match able pertinacity that our public school instruction has conveyed to evpry one of is." Do you moan to suggest that the British Navy, in the Battle of Jutland, showed itself deficient in pertinacity? The facts, as set forth by official cables, and corroborated) by German communiques, sufficiently dispose of such an allegation. Reviewing the battle as a whole, we 'are more than ever justified in a feeling of ,i(enuine pride in oar first line of defence. Our navy haa proved to demonstration that its pertinacity is quite "as unmatohable, and its force much more superior, 'both relatively and absolutely, than in the days of Nelson and Oollingwood. You inform us thiat the British Navy has not ibeen always invincible. Certainly it is true that there have been isolated defeats here andl there. A corrupt administration or nn incompetent commander may.easily causo a defeat, hut you have Btudied history to little or no purpose it you take isolated instances scattered over oenturies, and have failed to understand or appreciate the growth of Britain's sea power, which has been steadily and progressively increasing since the defeat of the Armado. Is it not an incontestable fact that Britain has, within the last three centurieß, broken

Mr T. A. Bucwnghani, of Otautau, it member of the Southland Oounty Council, member of the Southland Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, and also of the Bluff Harbour Board, is spending a few days in Levin, with Mir V. W. Goldsmith, to wKom ho is related. Mr Buckingham is a delegate to the National Dairy Conference which open® at Palmerston -NoHli tomorrow to consider matters of moment in tlie dairying industry. Regarding the season in Southland he says it is the best the province has experienced fbr fthirty years, though the turnip crops were affected with dry rot to a jgre&ter extent than known before. There is a keen demand throughout the country for store stock while fat sheep are realising good prices.

and destroyed the maritime power ot Spain, of Holland, and oi France. It is equally certain, despite your peesimisrn, that the navial power of Germany will be destroyed before the present war is over. Ae Swinburne Bays: — "England, queen of the waves whose green inviolate girdle enringe thee ' iround, "Mother fair as the morning, where is now the place of thy foeman found, "Still the sea that salutes us free proclaims them stricken, acclaims thee crowned." You seem to be ambitious ot providing ub with the twentieth century edition of Brown's Estimate, revived and brought up to date to suit the exigencies of the crisis througti which we are paf®ing, but, for my own part, I prefer tho more 'balanced and optimistic opinions of British and neutral naval experts. You refer to Mr 'Jftayne as "a misrepresentative of average public opinion." lam no admirer ot Mr Payne. His judgment is frequently questionable, hie bad taste generally unquestionable, but the attitude he has adopted- during the war has been, on fclie whole, a right-minded and patriotic one, and his efforts to combat the German peril in our midst are, 1 am qur.e confident, endorsed by lan overwhelming majority of New Zealanders. However, I agree with with you that it would not be wise to stop news from German sources. The insane anl dithyrambio rhapsodies of the Kaiser concerning hiß mythical victory ac Jutland hqive a distinct and appreciable value as showing the depth and extent of Hunnifih mendacity. We knew (beforehand, that the Huns were unmatehable for cruelty, for TJrutality, for inhumanity, for treachery, for me l d'acity, andi in short for every degraded characteristic of -which the human mind in its lowest conceivable state of debasement is capable. The Kaiser's speeches show us that we must unite with these qualities a childish absurdity that is altogether beneath our contempt. Your reference to the political history of Mr T. W. RTicxTes is singularly inappropriate at a time like the present when party politics are considered as being altogether in abeyance, and in conclusion I will bidi you farewell in the words used by the Archbishop of Granada, when that ecclesiastical dignitary dispensed with the services ot Gil Bias—"God speed you, £Rere is nothing to stand in your way tiut tho want of a little better'taste. n —l am, etc., AHISTAIROH CT S. Levin, 18th June, lOlfl.