STIRRING CALL TO ARMS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 43, 26 January 1916, Page 2

STIRRING CALL TO ARMS.

"LET US CO OUT TO FICHT." STRONG DENUNCIATION OF LABOUR PARASITES. A strong call to arms was given ).y the Commonwealth Prime Minister .ihen speaking at a crowded recruiting meeting in Melbourne recently. "Never until the last flame lias been [iienched, and until the world is freed rom this terrific instrument of miliary despotism, can we say that we lave done enough; because never until hat day could we, as Australians, say .hat we were safe," lie declared. 'Some said, "Why should .1 fight? How loes it concern me?" LIFE AND DEATH STRUGGLE. "My. friends," said Mr Hughes, earnestly, "it concerns yon as life oncerns you, as death concerns you. t is something you cannot evade. The onsequences of defeat will roll over ,ou like a juggernaut, crushing you itterly out of all semblance to a free nan. 'Why should I fight for Austraia?' some say, "and for the capitalsts who own Australia ?' No man rill accuse me of couching a lance in avor of the capitalists. But I say to ;hose men that there is something nore in this country than mere material things. In this country, owing to -he heroic efforts of those who went jefore us, we have the key to liberty ;biat will open all doors. (Cheers). iVill you use it? If you will not, then i .tand aside, and let those use it who ma. THE FOUL PARASITES. 8 -. -'*& "I appeal to the people oi this country " said the Prime Minister, "to oin the expeditionary forces. I appeal to the manhood of Australia. I To not appeal to those men a who, posing as lovers of liberty, do what they can to prevent men from joining the forces. These men—l must speak plainly—these men pretend to speak as the mouthpiece of Labor and unionism, but they have nothing in common with Labor or unionism. (Great cheering). They are foul parasites. They have attached themselves to the vitals of Labor. They seek, as it were, to take up their foul abode in the vitals of their host—to speak for him, to usurp those functions which belong to him. There is between syndicalism— Ardt is its name—and unionism and Labor, as Ave know it in this country, a gulf as wide as hell. (Loud cheers). THE RELIC; lON OF SELF. "If the world," Mr Hughes continued, "depended upon the strength )i the arms of these people, who speak is lovers of liberty, it would have been in chains to-day. These men meer at patriotism, because the very ■iound of it cuts them to the quick—because patriotism is based upon the •sacrifice of self, and their religion is the apotheosis of self. Self is the beginning and ending of everything they have. (Great applause). These men know no nationality, religion *>r principle, and in the name of unionism and Laborism, I pass them out like devils out of swine. (Tremendous cheering). THE BONE AND SINEW OF UNIONISM. "Unionism to-day has found representatives in the armies. One of the unions to which 1 have the honor to belong contains only 5000 members, ind has over 1200 fighting at the front. The waterside workers have sent -1000,and the Australian Workers' Union over 20,000. Are these men, ,'»vho are the very bone and sinew of unionism, to be told their duty by these people, who babble about peace, and who have a good word for every country except this? No. Let them stand where they will, so long as they stand not with us. (Applause). APPEAL TO EVERY MAN. "I have said enough," said the Prime Minister, in conclusion, "but not too much. I appeal to the men of Australia to do what lies in their power to help us in this great struggle. I appeal to every man to fight for Ins country, because this is as much a battle for Australia as it is a battlefield for Britain or any part of the Empire. It may be that this war will yet find its way to our very shores. There is only one way to avert it, and that is by going out to meet the foe. J*et us go out to meet them, and not stand, here like cravens, to wait until they come here to us." (Prolonged applause).