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Hokitika Guardian, 11 May 1920, Page 2

Tiie visit of the Prince of Wales is an occasion for emphasising our loyalty No country can hang together if its people are not united to uphold its constitution. Whatever may be the ruling force, that force has to be recognised, •respected and honored. It will be noted that a Returned Soldier in Weli lington has questioned the loyalty of a Member of Parliament. Tf we- are to have loyalty anywhere, it should be in our Parliament where the laws of the land under the constitution are framed. There cannot be much variae tion of loyalty. It must be the real

article, or else it is disloyalty. A country should not harbor those who are not loyal to it. If a country is not good enough to be loyal to, it is good enough for the disloyal to shun it, and failing that it were best for the country to take steps to exclude the disloyal. No country can bo governed successfully without the loyal support of its people. Under our elastic constitution tho people have the fullest freedom to select their own government and their immediate rulers. That being so the people as a. whole should be loyal and true to their country, and the maintenance of those supports of Empire which give us a world-wide dominion, and add so tremendously to tho prestige of the country we live in. The Roman Catholic address at Wellington to the Prince of Wales put the loyalty question admirably when it went on to say : On behalf of the Catholics of the Archdiocese of Wellington, we desire to extend to you a hearty welcome to New Zealand. We welcome you not only because of your exalted rank and your own gracious personality,

but because you come as the highest representative of our Sovereign, His Majesty King George V, to whom we render through you our fealty and allegiance. We trust that your visit will bo productive of much good and will be a stimulus to patriotism, love of country, and obedience to lawful authority, virtues that are as much needed in the world to-day as at any other period of its history. Catholics, we need hardly assure you, will ever strive to inculcate and practice these virtues, for they are mindful of St Peter’s exhortation, ‘Fear God, Honour the King.” In conclusion may we express the hope that this visit of Your Royal Highness to these lands in the Southern Seas will bo fraught with much pleasure to yourself and at the same time serve the nobler purpose of bringing more closely together ail sections of the people m the bonds of greater charity, peace, and justice. May God .ever have you in His keeping.

The happiest augury yet appearing on the political horizon'for the satisfactory solution of the industrial troubles which •beset all parts of the Empire, in tile realisation by Labor itself that the position can be looked at no longer from the wrong cud of the telescope. The distorted vision thereby' .obtained has 1 given Labor generally a very 7 false vision pf the real position and the necessity -iherp is fpr work, more work, and stilt more work if the pin ion is to reliabitate itself and survive. The latest IJfid most outspoken authority on the subject ip i)0 less a pei-sonage than Hr Storey the recently elected Premier of New South AVal.es. The dpf/mf- pf the Nationalists was certainly worjth whijp, if at; a result Labor lias come into power to realise its obligations and is determined to impress ifs convictions P)t the State it has pj administer fop the time being, Mr Storey short as has been liis term of office, Ims discovered something of the financial obligations, and the reality of the situation to bp grappled with. Speaking of the enormous debt of the State and presumably of Australia generally, for tile country is just living on borrowed money, i lie gave, according to y'esterday’ cable I news, i,i daring hint to the l.ehour agitators who would limit the hours of labour and so lessen production a.ncj the carping power.of the nation. Mr Clynes is giving the Labor ppopfe at Home the same message, apd in fills dun) faejfc wp have file best hopes for the future. My Storey went further and gajd unless they wip-ked now, in a year or two they mighf be glarf of any work at all! As the Sydney IJpMetii) lias put it colloquially, “the day pf darned hard w<n’k” Jtas arrived, and the realisation of this by the workers is the solution of the difficult times ahead. -Work those hard times will not overtake .us,!