MR. McCOMBS' FOLLY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1596, 10 August 1916, Page 2

MR. McCOMBS' FOLLY.

THE decision ol: Mr McCombs and his l.\\ .W and Red Eed. associates to test the constitutionality ol tho Military Service Act in the Supremo Court will, in the opinion ol' the Wanganui Herald, (hid small favour in the Dominion. If Britishei's throughout the Empire displayed no more patriotism or practical appreciation of the great blessings and bcneJits they enjoy under British rule than Mr McCombs, we would to-day he under thy heel of the Hun. The feelings of! Labour and the (■(immunity generally are well expressed by an Australian (Mr Robert Harris, one of the fathers of the political labour movement in the Commonwealth), who thus trenchantly deals with auti-conscriptiou-

isls like Mr McCombs: —“I have been identified with tbe political Labour movement (luring the whole of ils existence, iiml feel very deeply the unwise attitude of the present executive on the mutter of anticonscription. The methods by which (he present representatives of the executive obtained office, and the actions of many of them at the late, conference, have had a damaging effect in alienating many supporters from tile movement. Their actions in striving to rouse public opinion in the matter of anti-conscription are their crowning piece of folly. If they look for public support, then they altogether misjudge public feeling. The public mind is in no amiable temper to listen calmly to disguised pacifists, after the brutal work of the Huns in the present war. Thousands of people in Australia, who to-day mourn the loss of bravo relatives who enlisted (and the majorliy of them are workers), feel dial they have no time for any body of men who raise a shield to screen the coward or shirker. If any body of men should stand for universal service, the Labour Political League should be that body. Their action is contrary to the platform of the party, for the establishment of a Citizen Defence Force and compulsory military training is one of the accepted Labour ideals. With many others in the movement, 1 fee) deeply humiliated at the thought that the great political body that has taken 25 years of struggle to build up, should be blended with International Socialists and i.W.W. advocates, under (he banner of the Anti-Conscription League. I cannot forget the attitude of those two bodies throughout the present war in striving to discredit the efforts of the Federal and State authorities in their help to the Empire. These partisans are not only opposed to conscription, but also voluntarism, and I have heard our troops branded as cutthroats and murderers, also as scum of the earth, at some of their public meetings. At one of their meetings held in the Domain just prior to our first contingent leaving, I heard one of their speakers express the hope ‘that not one of the men would come back alive; that they would all be blown to blazes.’ The ideals of these two organise - lions are totally opposed to constitutional effort, and aim largely at forcible revolutionary methods. I regard with great distrust any move of the International Socialists, for 1 know that a large German element has been in the past identified with it; or the I. WAV., and they are 'amply advocates of anarchy. There is nothing in common between the Political Labour League and such bodies, and I think the executive of the P.L.L. should have no identity with them. If the executive of the movement are going to persist in their foolish attitude, then I know that thousands of votes are going to lie lost to Labour at the next elections. Surely they can trust their own party and disabuse their minds of the bogey they have raised; for if they fear that conseriplion if adopted is going (o permanently shackle the workers, then they have entirely lost faith in the future power of the movement to gain success at. the ballot box.”