Correspondence

Levin Daily Chronicle, 26 July 1917, Page 2

Correspondence

Our correspondents' opinions are their own: the responsibility -, f editorial ones mokes sufficient. b-i'J&at, for thf editor's shoulders.} .S'lilD ITTOX WITHIN THE EMPIRE. (To the Editor). Sir, —iLabor discontent is risible' throucrhnut the British Empire. If over there was ia time for unity of action and self-sacrifice, in the history of the British nation it is now. Yet numerous sections of labor aim at plundering the general public, while others take no trouMe to hide their malevolent, unpatriotic and seditious sentiments. To impede the various governments at such a crisis is the blackest treachery and treason. There must be some cause for the development of such a spirit among the British, which in past centuries was not indulged in. ' Conditions of 'labor have been vastly improved within tlhe last fifty years, while in the colonies most men could gain a good position ; still the virus of discontent is a«> pronounced as in the old land. Each union appears to have one idea, and that is to get some special advantage for itself. The root cause of all the trouble is drink It is not to bo expeced that a government that will sanction lie drugging of the whole nation with alcohol will escape trouble, but governments like individuals reap as they have (sown. So as a result one must deplore the want of patriotism on the part of so many, and the spirit of anarchy evinced by others. Hundreds of thousands of Britishers are degraded and dehumanized by the use of this noxious drug, besides impoverished so that they fall an easy prey; to the anarchist. Having nothing to lose, they envy the more thrifty that have, and would, if they could, dispossess them of it. It behoves all sections of the people who wish to see settled government to unite to expel the drink traffic, as a menace of national safety. The Government who should lrad on this crusade hang back, and here in New Zealand hinder the reform. ißut a united effort on the part of the people* would compel; ,these* miserable billet-hunting politicians to do tlieir duty. If we as a people are too supine, too degenerate to copy other countries that have taken drastic i measures against the traffic, then the '

fate that has always overtaken unrepentant nations will be ours.—'l am, etc.,

AX HONEST SCEPTIC INb. 3 Heatherlea, July 2.3. 1917.