CORRESPONDENCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 7 May 1918, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE GERMAN CONTROVERSY

(To tbe Editor)

was rather surprised at your Editorial summary in Friday’s issue, regarding what had been said by the’Rev. Mr Eraser, and am unable to follow your quaso-logical deductions. You lav emphasis on fair play—yet attempt 'to take a partisan attitude, NOT like a true Britisher, which, almost- make one ask the question, has German influence been the mainspring of your Editorial. You have not reported a single sentence of the Rev. Eraser’s remarks in your paper, thus, giving no other reader an opportunity to form an independent opinion. “KULTUR” as per your leader, proGorman like must be accepted as an undoubted axiom, which I believe many people in Hokitika, like other parts of the British dominions resist.

]am not the only one, who thinks that German influence lias been too long predominant in Hokitika, and that ALL of Gorman extraction should he debarred from holding official appointments and will support the Reverend Gentlemen in putting a stop to this indignity. I may also say that it adds to your error by your inserting the foolish letter of young Mr Schroder. , Owing to the present dearth of our youth from scholastic institutions, thorp services being required in another sphere, it is no great feat of intellectual superiority where ho may bo the only physically fit competitor, to take such ‘‘at present questionable” , honour. Had be the proficiency in education as assumed no such letter would have appeared. , j I am etc., JUSTTCIA.

GERMANS AND THE PUBLIC

vSERVICE

Sir, —I observe a letter in your issue ot Eriday last addressed to me, bearing a German signature, and also a misleading article on the topic of said letter. You will, I am sure, permit me to deal ireely with both.

In reply, I do not intend to waste words. You were playing with fire when you inserted that letter and article, and if,you find some heat generated, you will have only yourself to blame.

You appear as'the mild-mannered champion of fairness, British fairness, bless you! And your specimen of the art is to insert an insolent letter from this whipper-snapper of German parentage, who seems to carrv Canterbury College in his carpet bag, since his letter, written in Hokitika, bears the address of that place'oflearning and manners. This letter gives his own concoction of a speech I made at a public meeting in this town at a farewell to my countrymen going to the front. You did not report a line of the speech, nor did your correspondent hear it.

Yet 3-011 insert this specimen o the Canterbury brand of kultur, in

which a public man is insolently threatened, under a German signature, with compulsion of British law, to compel him to grovel within ten days to this youngster stuffed with self-conceit. Not content with that, which might have satisfied the Kaiser himself, }’bu proceed to prejudice me in a leading article, to side-track the issue, and to appear as the apologist of the “ estimable ” Germans of your acquaintance. It is the first appearance of German penetration and of the White Feather in the Press of this Dominion, and I hope it will be the last.

Let me state, what you have, not reported, them erits of the question. You say it is a “large question” I have raised. Precisely, I raised a large question and you raised a little one —more . suited to the capacity of some people. I raised the vital question, properly raised, by the incident you reported—whether persons bearing German names, of German extraction and parentage, were to be permitted, without inquiry, to step into the public offices of this Dominion, with a fan-fare ol trumpets of congratulation from the Press. Aud you have raised the further and even more vital question, whether a public man is to be permitted to call attention to this matter without, being compelled to eat dirt, German dirt, /within ten days, under peril of the “mailed fist” of “the law.”

I raised the question of conserving the fruits of the war for the men who win it, and I raised it first in connection with educational positions and privileges, because I had some qualifications to spdak on that subject. Permit me to mak,e it a little clear to the -wayfaring man. The public education of this Dominion is open to all. In addition to the. common facilities, scholarships are provided, but only on certain conditions. Scholarships are not given in the abstract merely to brains, not even German brains. I

took some part in framing the conditions of some of them. The conditions, as introduced by Mr Seddon, affected the status of the parents as well as the “ brains” of the student. Certain national scholarships were, in his time, res 1 ricted to sons of parents whose incomes did not exceed a certain amount. Now, throughout the Empire and in this Dominion, the German nationality stands barred. Parliament has specially pi evented persons of German parentage changing their names, so that they may the more easily be identified. A large number are confined in detention camps. That being so, it is the right and duty of every citizen to demand a clear passport from any bearing German names who may come forward for public place, patronage, or office. In the present world conflict, Germans in this Dominion walk on velvet. Tlvy are not permitted to fight for their own country, and they are not compelled to fight for ours, and large numbers besides do “ business as usual.”

They have no personal sacrifices to make either for one country or another. That being so, while our j’oung men are

sacrificing their educational careers and also their lives, the sons of

German parents are permitted to draw competitive prizes from the National funds. If it was proper, in Mr Seddon’s time, that certain

scholarships should be restricted to sons of parents who are not wealthy, it is not an unjust proposal that University scholarships should, during the continuance of the war and for three years thereafter, be restricted to sons of British parentage, or such others whose families have manifested their loyalty on the stricken field. If this is so, in University scholari ships, it is still more essential in appointments to public offices. Your paragraph which gave rise to this controversy invited the whole West Coast to congratulate this youth of German parentage on his securing the plums of the educational world. If it had stopped there, I would probably not have spoken ; out you stated that the young man in ques- i tion “will shortly take up a mastership at Christ’s College.” It was this, with the fulsome invitation to join in congratulation, that took me to my feet, I protested then and I protest now against any sons of Ger man parentage being appointed to public offices during the currency of the war and for such time thereafter as the Government may see fit, unless such sons have vindicated theirlovaltv on the battlefield. This young man of German parentage stands to be crystallised in a first class educational billet worth perhaps £3OO a year or more before the conclusion of this war,, with his foot on the rung of the educational ladder ahead of men who have fought for their country. That is the position.

It is no part oi my case to prove disloyalty on the part of any “estimable people of German birth” in various parts of this Dominion. It is lor them, in the midst of this conflict for our existence, to demonstrate their loyalty to the Sovereign and people of this country by commensurate sacrifices such as the British people have made in all parts of the Umpire, before they or their sons shall, during this same conflict or alter it, have public positions conferred upon them or reap the first fruits of sacrifices not their own. You raise the small cry of this young man ‘ using his asset for his living and livelihood.” I raised no question about his living or livelihood, but about his being appointed to a position at Canterbury College.

I may dismiss his own performance with a few words. He gives very mingled evidence both of his scholarship and of his fitness for an appointment to teach English culture, manners and modesty to the sons of English gentlemen. You sav he was discharged from camp as physically unfit to serve Ins country on the- field of battle. I his forms no qualification for. conferring on him a permanent position as a master in one of-the first public colleges of this Dominion: a position which should oe reserved for the sons of British parents, or such others, as have proved their physical fitness and vindicated their loyalty on the Dattle field. We live in a time of deeds, not words.

It is a “large question,” simple and clear, and I venture to say that every hand, not in the grave, of the thousands of men this country has sent to the front will be raised in determined and fierce approval of my position. What would the dead men say ? What does this young man say who wants to pose as such an ardent patriot? Is he out to conserve the f ruits of the par for the men who win it, or for‘the estimable patriots of German extraction who haven’t shed a drop of their blood for the defence of this land ? The people of this town who know the facts, and who applauded my utterances, are not deceived by your statement that the youth in question “is of the third generation, born in this country,” when, in point of fact, only the young man was born here. You wish your readers to infer that the family are German only in name, and probably conspicuous for their loyalty and attachment' to the Sovereign and people of this country. Let the Government and the authorities of Canterbury College search for any sacrifice these “estimable” people have made to win this war, and tell us what they can find. Now I intend to go further, and that is, to send this correspondence to the Educational Institute of New Zealand, and leave it to them to say whether the places and plums in the National educational service are to be conferred on persons of German extraction who have not sacrificed a tear, nor lost a drop of blood in defence of this country, while teachers in hundreds have fought or fallen for = their native land. But your sinister action has raised .another even more vital question, and it cannot well be argued out in your columns. I therefore intend to write the Government, in view of the dark and cloudy days ahead in this Dominion as elsewhere, to take steps to prevent the most loyal press in the world, the presfs of this Dominion, which has done such yeoman service for the Empire in the past, from being penetrated by German influence or German gold. You will search the press of this Dominion for a parallel to the dirty and unpatriotic action by which you seek to subdue public men into a grovelling silence on the public platform to the German element in this town. I have examined the documents in the Supreme Court covering the ownership and the mortgage of the Guardian and Times Coy, and I intend to send the facts to the Government. It raises the whole ques-

tion of the possibility of German , penetration, control, and ownership of the Press of this colony. I refrain from saying more. It is . another large question and will not be settled by the patriot who inserted the German menace to a loyal I citizen, and wrote the article oi o-rovel to the estimable Germans. Both would read well in the trenches. I hope he will forward a stack of them to the New Zealand Brigade. The time has arrived to form a loyalist Vigilance League in this Dominion and specially in this town, to help not only to win the war, but I to conserve the fruits of it fox the men and families who win it with tlieir sacrifices on the battlefield There will be no White Feather Fatriots on that committee.- Here is one man ready to join. I am'etc., P B. Fkasisk. Hokitika, May 6th, 191 S. [Editorial comment on above will appear to-morrow. —Eo. G.J