THE KAIPARA AND WAITEMATA ECHO WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE KAIPARA ADVERTISER & WAITEMATA CHRONICLE." HELENSVILLE, THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 1915 AMERICA AND THE ALLIES.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 29 April 1915, Page 2

THE KAIPARA AND WAITEMATA ECHO WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE KAIPARA ADVERTISER & WAITEMATA CHRONICLE." HELENSVILLE, THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 1915 AMERICA AND THE ALLIES.

Continuing the articles «s published in last week's issue from Stead's, " Review of Reviews,'1 we now give the following interesting subjects from the same source, " Ignorance and Malice " deals with silly attacks made by some newspapers and prominent mnn upon the United States and its President, and thus embarassing the Home Government i( What ought America to have Done?" "A Comedy of Errors," and " The- Saviours of the Belgians" are also subjects freely dealt with and deserving of careful perusal :— IGNORANCE, NOT MALICE Knowing as they do the seriousness of the position, I find it impossible to understand why responsible newspapers and prominent men should continue to embarrass the > Home Government by silly attacks upon the United States and its President. One can appreciate why everyone heaps abuse upon the Kaiser, although those who do so probably know nothing whatever about him, except that he happens to be the ruler of Germany ; but, to use the same sort of language about Dr Wilson, merely because he does not see fit to shout loudly on our side, is not only absurd, it is more — mischievous. I referred to this matter last month, but it is one of such importance, that I come back to it again. During the last few days, it is true, there . has been a marked improvement !in the tone of tho press, but, before this occurred, many people have undoubtedly been influenced ,to regard the United States as ! anything but a friend of Great Britain. Such a suspicion can only lurk in the minds of those ! who have entirely failed to grasp the true situation. It is not their fault. They err in ignorance, not act from malice. We are an eminently sane people, and, once we know the facts, use our own judgment in arriving at correct conclusions. WHAT OUGHT AMERICA TO HAVE DONE? I have been puzzled to discover what it was in the American attitude which caused so many people to suddenly develop so pronounced an antagonism towards a nation which had hitherto been far our best friend of all those countries which border the Pacific. America, I was told by some, ought to have protested against the German violation of Belgian territory. She ought to have strongly called the Kaiser to book for the atrocious conduct of his soldiers in the invaded country. Others again denounced American merchants for trying to supply Genn.iny with contraband of war, and the American Government for pro- | testing against 1,4 c rn^Liods of the British navy in "searching ships which had a right to fly the Stars and Stripes. These latter insisted that although the United States had adhered to the Declaration of London, she immediately protested when Great Britain enforced its rules against American ships. Still others declared that all the citizens of ( the United States cared about was the almighty dollar, and that they were seizing the opportunity the war gave them of

securing new markets, at the expense, not only of Germany, but of the Allies. A COMEDY OF ERRORS I have dealt with almcst all these points in recent numbers. I have shown that the United States was not a signatory to the Belgian Treaty of 1839. That, although, like all other neutrals, Spain, Holland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the SpanishAmerican Republics and others she signed the general Hague Convention, which, to some extent, made her vaguely a party to all other treaties, unlike the others —not one of whom has protested—she added a special clause to the effect that nothing in the Convention should be allowed to interfere with the Monroe Doctrine, or to embroil her in European affairs. It is worth noting that, although one of the signatories of the treaty of .1867, which guaranteed the neutrality of Luxemburg, in much more definite language than that of 1839 did that of Belgium, Great Britain did not protest against the Germans violating the Duchy. For the United States to protest, unless she were prepared to back her remonstrance with her bayonets, was obviously quite useless, and would merely have made her ridiculous. The American.Government might, perhaps, have protested against the methods of barbarism employed by the Germans, which we here accept with very little reservation, and assume to have taken place, as stated in the cables. American writers, however, point out, quite reasonably, that we live at present largely in a fog in these matters, and know nothing of the German accusations against the Belgians and Russians, which have also been laid before the citizens of the United States, with equally loud demands for the lodging of protests. Only one British newspaper, and that a Labour one, ever printed some of the circumstantial statements of the Germans. Obviously no neutral nation would make a formal protest, except on the very soundest evidence. We have not realised that a great many of the wild statements made proved, on investigation, to be quite divorced from the truth, nor how much sifting will need to be done before accuracy can be assured. We ought not to gird at President Wilson for not protesting on the strength of the statements of one side only. No other neutral State has done so yet. So far as the Declaration of London is concerned; the United States Government is taking no excep--tion to its rules. What it has protested about are the exceptions Great Britain made in it at the beginning of the war. THE SAVIOURS OF THE BELGIANS Not only has America equipped a large portion of the Allies' forces, her diplomats have done magnificent service for the Allies i in Germany, Austria and Turkey. Great Britain might have entrusted her interests to the Spanish Ambassador, the Dutch Minister, or the Swiss Charge d'Affaires, but does anyone imagine for a moment that representations from any of these excellent gentlemen would have carried anything like the weight attached to those made by the ambassadors of the United States, with its 100,000,000 people behind them ? Not only have the American diplomatists stood up for British prisoners of war, British interned non-combatants and British wounded in Germany and Austria, they have, in Belgium, actually been the means of saving a whole people from starvation. 'Humanly speaking most of the 7,000,000 Belgians who have remained in their warshattered country, owe their lives to America. At the end of 1914, at least 1,500,000 Belgians were absolutely starving, and depended entirely upon American food, which was not sold, but given, for their existence. Today, twice that number line up before the free canteens which have been established. The magnificent self-sacrifice of those devoted Americans in Belgium can never be adequately chronicled. It is one of the finest examples of humanitarian effort the world has seen. If by any ghastly chance America were dragged into the awful war, the Belgians would be the first to suffer, and one shudders to even contemplate what would in all probability be their fate. -— «»... .. - . ... THE ELECTIONS The elections in connection with Mayors, Municipal Councillors, Hospital Boards and Harbour Boards are now over. , Helensville, being a Town Board, had no indulgence other than an attempt to poll for a member to represent the Takapuna Borough and the Waitemata County on the Auckland .Harbour Board, and a more complete fiasco or

attempt at an election could not have been perpetrated by the authorities concerned. There was no announcement whatever made in the local press (the ECHO) which circulates in all the places along the line from Auckland where there was an authorised polling-booth, and very few ratepayers or residents were aware that they had the privilege of voting for the election of a member of the . Auckland Harbour Board, consequently, through being kept in ignorance, very few of the 500 electors on the Helensville Town Board Roll and twice that number of ratepayers and others in the various small centres upon other rolls, knew that they had a vote, therefore the sub-returning officers up this way had no chance of earning to advantage the proverbial sovereign, which was money thrown away absolutely. There were but two candidates for electors to choose from, i.e., Messrs V. Kerr-Taylor' and R. T. Arthur, and as the former is well-known in the district, being a member of the Waitemata County Council, he scored as well as could be expected—the majority of those recording having been informed in- the street that " they had a vote." —But what a farce. Since the above was in type, we learn that the sub-returning officer at Parakai was kept awake all day recording 17 voters' " fancy," i.e., Kerr-Taylor 12 votes, Arthur 5. At Helensville polling booth the subreturning officer managed 77 voters, 39 being for Kerr-Taylor, and the balance for Arthur of Takapuna renown. » RAILWAY MATTERS Complaints reach" us almost daily in regard to the state of the lavatories on board the Helensville trains, in not being properly equipped with the requirements of travellers on a lengthy journey. When a jug is at hand there has been no water in the filter, and when the filter has been found to be full of water the drinking jug has been found to be missing; sanitary necessities have also been found wanting; and, to make matters worse, one morning last week the floor of the w.c was flooded in water —a disgrace to any railway department catering for the public travelling from Kaukapakapa to Auckland by the early morning train. Then again, we have complaints of persons arriving by the late train from Auckland, stumbling over the rails at the station for want of proper lighting arrangements. This is a very old complaint, and should be attended to by the authorities. *Give a dog a bad name and it' sticks —just the same as^does the Helensville line being " a perfect rotter" for many years.