The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, December 4, 1915. DISLOYALTY AND IGNORANCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1481, 4 December 1915, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, December 4, 1915. DISLOYALTY AND IGNORANCE.

A resident informs us that lie was filled with disgust at a little happening prior to the pantomime in the Town Hall on Thursday night, on the part of three men in the audience who deliberately kept their seats when the orchestra struck up the National Anthem. He states that their altitude was most marked because they were the only ones present who displayed such marked and pointed disloyalty. He assumes that they are pro-Germans. If what our informant says is true, the behaviour of the men, more particularly at this time, was very reprehensible. Our observations when present at local public gatherings, when the National Anthem has been played or sung, indicate that Foxton citizens are as loyal as are to he found in any part of the Empire. Our informant’s allegations do not necessarily indicate disloyalty because the men may have been suffering from some temporary, physical or mental disability, or owing to ignorance. Under such circumstances their conduct would be open to pity rather than scorn. There may be men of the extreme Red Fed type in the community, who, out of sheer bravado would so conduct themselves, hut we question it. The true champions of Labour have proved themselves in the present crisis loyal to King and Empire. Let it be said of Foxlou that it “fears God and honours the King” and this sentiment is expiessed in the National Anthem, and the man who refuses to outwardly acknowledge this in public assemblies is a pitiful object of ignorance.