OUR KID GLOVES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 217, 13 October 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR KID GLOVES.

TIME TO TAKE THEM OFF. (From the London Daily Mail.) Lord Newton, on behalf of the Foreign Officv?, has made ail important statement regarding the murder of Captain Fryatt. "It would be very rash,'' ho said, 4i to suppose that Great Brita'n would bind herself under any circumstances not to take retaliatory measures. . . One cannot confine oneself to fruitless expostulation." There has been far too much expostulation on our part in this war and far too little action. Viscount Grey's plaintive little Notes have not prevented the torture of the miserable British prisoners. When will our Fore : gn Office learn that a cannibal is not reformed by telling him that h : s habits are ungeutlemanly and contrary to the rules of the game? Tlie German WarBook declares explicitly that the 0n!.. - restraint on cruelty in war is " the fear of reprisals." The Germans know that we fight with kid gloves. Because of this they have shot a most gallant and devoted Englishman, who was acting in accordance with the hi.ws of war —even as laid down by themselves —with the orders of his superiors, and with immemorial sea usage. They dared no' perpetrate tiiis crime upon a French or Russian officer. Why? Because they know that in such in such a case instant retaliation in kind would have followed. The French stopped the abominable ill-treatment of their prisoners at the hand of the enemy by reprisals. And we allow cur men to be starved because we cannot advance from protests to deeds. Tho German outrages steadily nue in gravity and horror. Wo had at thu outset the hideous massacres of Belgian noncombatants, tho infamy of Louvain, and unspeakable crimes against women. Wc have had in the later months of the war the murder of the wounded, the methodical starvation of our prisoners, and the infamous treatment of the French civilian population at Lille which is being systematically enslaved to minister to the conqueror's lust or toil for his profit. We had the massacre of neutrals and non-combatants in the Lusitania and the shooting of -uiss Cavell. Now a new German submarine campaign on the largest scale is imminent. The asassination of Captain Fryatt by courtmartial is part of a settled, cold-blood-ed policy. It has l)cen committed deliberately with the object of terrorising the officers of our merchant service and frightening them from offering any resistance. If they can be cowed, the German argues —and he knows nothing of their character and ironheated courage—our food supply can be cut off and then Great Britain is undone. Kultur is supreme, the cause of liberty and civilisation lias for icver perished, LINCOLN'S EXAMPLE.

Whatever measures are taken against the enemy we have to think not only of punishment but.also of prevention. Abraham Lincoln, tL? tender and human* President of. th-3 United States and one of the noblest figures among ail the rulers of men, recognised in a similar case that, i the naton calls on the officer to discharge his duty in a particular way, it must protect him with all its streng;i and not rest content with notes of expostulation if he should l>e cruelly murdered. When a case like that of Captain Fryatt's arose m the Civil Wa. - , ho issued this order, on July 30, 1863: It is therefore ordered that for cverv soldier of the United States killed in . violation of the laws of war a rebel ' soldier shall be executed. The result was remarkable. The Con federate Government ceased offending Reprisals in this case meant humanity A.VD NO THREAT TO EXECUTE THE OFFENDERS AFTER THK WAR WOULD HAVE HAD THE SLIGHTEST EFFECT. There are other steps which should be taken now without delay. German property throughout the Empire should at once be impounded by law and, after the claims of British sul)joits with property in Germany have been satisfied, the remnant should be held as a fund to compensate the victims of outrage. An ample grant, for instante, should at once be made to Mrs. Fryatt from the money in the till of the Deutsche Bank in London Secondly, an Act should lie passed depriving Germans in this country cf all civil rights for twenty-one years and forbidding intercourse v and trade with them. Professor Jastrow has recently informed Germans that the intense resentment caused by their acts will rapidly disappear and they will be able to regain trio trade of the world. A lax on the Statute Book would prove .0 them that we are in bitter earnest anl that we m-"an to have no more dealings with criminals. As for Captain Fryatt's family, the State's duty is plain. It must maintain them in honour an:! comfort as the Athenian people treated the children of the'r glorious deal and to celebrate ther father's act ". national memorial service should b? ordained.