On J. Robertson, M.P.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 78, 6 September 1912, Page 5

On J. Robertson, M.P.

P. FRASER HAS A SAY.

A SCATHING INDICTMENT

Sir,—Now that, Mr. Parry has so effectively disposed of Mr. Robertson, M.P., little of a supplementary character remains to bo added. Being placed entirely out- of court by Mr. Robertson, it would simply be waste of time for mc to give any detailed corroboration, as 1 most certainly could give, of Mr. Parry's clear, explicit, and convincing statement of facts.

Mr. Robertson may exhaust his fairly extensive store of political dexterity ; he may force his imagination to bankruptcy point; he may explore all the nooks and crannies, all the holes and corners just beyond the boundary line of accuracy; ho may pose us a- freo speech martyr and champion of indepcndeiiß criticism (a favorite little game of the Labor politician of tho ordinary average limited type—an attitude which, however, a cruel and knowing world regards with a smile of cold scepticism); ho may eveu protest over-much Wiat all ho aid was done out of love, for the, Federation, even at the risk of helping the gold-owners, and injuring by association and comparison the respectable middle-class party of which he is one of tho flickering Parliamentary headlights. All this he may do, but he will find it impossible to bring forward a single reason worth consideration why his "Star" interviews should not bo ranked alongside the notorious advice of his Pentecostal party's premier tohunga when ho requested a Wellington audience not to contribute to the strike fund and thus hit at the Federation through tho starving women and children.

Mr. Robertson's methods are familiar. They are a selection from those practised with varying success by many illustrious personages who figure prominently in history, from Ananias to Azeff, from Judas Iscariot to Walter Thomas Mills.

Mr. Robertson's regard for the Federation, clearly proved by his virtuous, if inexplicable, refusal to incriminate the hypothetical executive member who furnished him with the gratifying fiction of tho unsanctioned strike, is in essence that of the walrus of tho nursery rhyme towards the oysters he was devouring: " 'I feel for you.' tho walrus said, 'I deeply sympathise,' " and ho dropped largo tears while bolting tho oysters down. Somehow tho walrus appeared a bit of a hypocrite. The poisoned dagger is none the less deadly because concealed beneath tho assassin's cloak, nor tho act itself h- iss dastardly because the assassin's face is wreathed in unctuous smiles or fatuous with grimaces of goodwill. Only the United Labor Party has yet to learn the art of striking home. Mr. Robertson accuses mc of participating in the rather inberebtiug and exhilarating discussion in a manner more emphatic than elegant, and of indulging in the luxury of threatening to "give him hell." 1 marvel at my presumption. To speak in such a manner to an M.P., and a Labor one at that, is surely bad enough, but even to dream that a mere Federationist could possibly "give hell" to any prominent member of the United Labor Party is taking too much for granted. 1 overlooked tho essential fact that after all hell is conditional. Tho guilt of betraying the workers face to face with the enemy, of attempting to starve the women, and children of men on strike, of conspiring towards defeat <.f any section of workers, of using tho meiihods and weapons of tho common thug against members of your own class, of annihilating principle to assist the employers for jxain, personal or party, pecuniary or otherwise, would all bo to the average member of tho Federation, flt Labor umnent : onably mean, vile, and contemptible—-in short, hell. But to tho United Labor Party participation in such actions would appear, judging by recent performances, to approximate nearer to Paradise than even t>o Purgatory. The Federation's hell : s the United Labor Patty's heaven. They revel in its slime, they wallow in its filth, they glory in its infamy, they shout it's praises, lb cannot be. given them. They possess it now. Perhaps it possesses them. Anyhow, they seem to enjoy it. They find happiness in hell. It is their natural element. My threat was superfluous. —Yours, etc., Auckland, P. ERASER. Aue;u<'