THE TRAITORS WITHIN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1660, 11 January 1917, Page 3

THE TRAITORS WITHIN.

LABOUR M.F. SPEAKS OUT

In the course of remarks which he addressed to the men of: the district quota of the 25th Reinforcements, at Wanganui on Monday afternoon, Mr IV. A. Yeitcli, AI.P., made sea tiling reference to those disloyal agitators who were bent on fomenting industrial trouble at the present time. He was, he said, as thorough a Radical as there was in this Dominion, but while he was jealous of the interests of the bona lide workers, he realised that their first duty was to present a united front to the common enemy, and that this was no time to talk strike. The recent peace overtures made by Germany .were inspired by industrial unrest within the German Em-

pire. The linn and determined answer whieli the Allies had given to the German offer signified the spirit of unity by which their peoples were actuated, and the maintenance of that spirit among all classes of the community was essential to the preservation of our existence as a free and democratic people. There were some men, he said, who professed to believe that they would be as well off under German rule as they were under the British flag. “If they believe that,'’ he continued, “why the devil don’t they clear out to Germany, for they certainly have no right to remain here to scorn.” As a representative of Labour he felt it his duty to raise his voice in warning against the insidious efforts which were being made to foster industrial trouble. In his opinion those men who were lending themselves to a wicked and disloyal effort to stir up strife should be regarded as traitors, and treated as such.