CORRESPONDENCE

Horowhenua Chronicle, 28 July 1916, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE

| I Our correspondents' opinions are their own; tue responsibility ol euitorial i»u«9 makes sufficient ballast for the liditor'a shoulders, j "HCNS AND THE RED FED." (To The Editor.) Sir,-- One must concede that in startout to defend agreement-breaking, Jas. i'rouse had a difficult task, we need not therefore grudge him a. little sympathy in the unfortunate position ho how finds hi nisei 1 in. Driven from point to point he is finally forced into the ignominous position (for him) of having to take cover behind the Maoriland Worker. Jn effect lie savs

•'The Maorikuid Worker says that the Labour Department .said that the dairy woi'keiti. etc." and so he, depends on the infallibility of the Maotiland; Worker lor his argument to have any force. It would be a shame to deprive him of his last poor protection, so I intend, Sir, to leave him just there, unfolded in the Maoriland Worker, and clinging to it a.s his last forlorn hope. 1 al«» tako off .my hat in silent tribute to

the astounding audacity which enablos Jas. Prouse to defend a policy of iudaistrial agreement-breaking, and in

the next breath to declare "that every means must be employed to harmonise the relations of capital and labour." ■Surely, Sir, he lacks sense of humour, or perhaps like a well-known character in Scottish fiction "he jokes wi' deeficulty."

In this last letter he seeks once more to hold up a. bogey, the bogey of Red. Fedism; he must surely have a bad conscience, Sic, else why is he so funky, he even trots out the old-exploded lie a;id wants to scare decent law-abiding people by the following: "at present few know the relation ot the A.P.U. to the 'Red Federation' or the 'Red Federation' to the J.U.W., whose headquarters are reported, to be in Berlin." .Now that kind of thing is the product of either sheer malice or ignorance, or. more like still, of both. (By the way. Sir, why the prefix ''Red?" Is it because of the well-known effect of that colour on the bovine nature? If so. then, those who use it are not flattering their audience). The relationship of the A.P.U. to the Federation of Labour can easily be found out by anyone the least bit interested; there is nothing to hide about it. I haven't troubled myself to findi out, but should imagine it is affiliated to that body in the same way a.s the Flaxworkers' Union has been for years, or the shearers, or any other of the many bodies that go to make up the Federation. The Federation has never had any connection with that favourite stalking horse of the anti-Labourists the f.W'.W., and has not any now. in lact there are fundamental differences

between them (greater say that beI t'veen the Niberal and Reform Leagues of New Zealand) which make any connection quite impossible. To say that the I.VT."\\ r ., however, has headquarters in Berlin is too utterly grotesque altogether. I should have thought that any one possessing even a t.mattering of knowledge of such, things would have known that the T.W ,\V. is pureVy an American organization, which neither headquarters, branches, or organization of any kind in any part of Europe. However, this particular lie is a rehash of one that was set going about the time of the last general election, viz., that the headquarters of" the .Social Democratic Party were in Berlin, and it was based oil the fact that there is an International .Socialist Bureau to which the New Zealandi iS.D.P. is affiliated. When the wai® broke out the Bureau was in Brussels, not Berlin, the international secretary I was Emile Vanderveldt now Minister of .State iu Belgian Government, and head of the Belgian Commission entrusted with stating the Belgian case against Germany to the neutral Powers. It may interest J as. Prouse to know that the British .representative on the above is the Hon. Arthur Henderson, M.P., Minister for Education, and who shares one thing in common with Jae. grouse, viz.. ho is a prominent mem- j be." of the .Methodist Church. Whatever connection therefore there is between the -New Zealandi Federation and the International Socialist Bureau is through the medium ot the Hon. A. Henderson, Methodist, and Minister of j the British Crown. |

Ja.s Prouse's reference to the Tunnelling Corps is singularly unfortuate for him; it is safe to say that at least three-fourth of that corps are what ho terms Red Feds. I think his reference to what they will do when they coii't- hack is, to say the (east, in questionable taste. They belong to the millers who were taunted with disloyalty in Wailii a few year* ago;; the men who were held up as enemies ot their country. They tore up a Union •I nek because they said they would rather sec it torn up than disgraced; that they were sincere in thin they have gone to prove with their blood, while those who waved it at tliot time and were the so-called "loyal" workers, with about three exceptions stay at home That is the record of the Wailii members of the Tunnelling Corps unci it i« to them Jas. I'rouse 'nooks when the war is over. Jas. Prouse it- probably just as far out in his calculations (though in the opposite direction) as is the writer referred to in Hi.' following which appeared in this morning's Manawatu Times:- " Hie l?angitikei Advocate emits a solemn warning. It Bays that when our soldiers return from the front they will bp discontented, lion ever well they rti*iy be treated, and will he imbued with alii the longings and d,esire« which per-

i r nutated the heart of the i'lvnelj ' liuuoa after the American War oi independence, and which tornuii.iij ed .in the French Revolution, i .This sagacious organ oi pubuc I opinion has convinced itself that J a large percentage of our fighting men will attach themselves to the advanced Liberals, the 1.W.W., and, other disturbing element*, and nervously suggests, that "the iand interests especially should keep tho organizations quiotfy -and properly organized,' and 'should not allow its protective machinery to be diverted from proper control.' A more ignorant, diisloyal and mischievous diatribe we have never read." Aly only comment is that evidently th« 3 Timee's editor, from ii its final comment, has not read Jas. JL'rouse's letter in yours of Saturday last. I am, etc., J. ROBERSTON. Levin, Ju»y 27. 1916.