Citizens Say

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 28, 26 April 1927, Page 8

Citizens Say

To the Editor:

“FAINT DAMNS”

Sir,— I know very little of civic politics, but having read two or three letters in a contemporary of THE SUN recently about Mr. Warnock’s candidature, two things have struck me. Firstly, it would seem that this contemporary has a grievance against Mr. Warnock; secondly, I have never known of another public man so poorly supplied with faults for his enemies to shout about. The letters I refer to are very petty. If it is fatal to a man’s cause to damn him with faint praise, I hope the converse is true and that he will succeed when blamed with faint damns. The last charge I read against him was that he told an interrupter at a political meeting to hold his tongue. Would the man have understood if requested to “cease his oratory?” And would the man who brought this “charge” kindly express his opinion on the subject of throwing rotten tomatoes as a means of upholding the -dignity of the University? LORD CHESTERFIELD. Rotorua.

LISTLESS ONEHUNGA

Sir, —In your sub-leader of the 19th inst. you stated that the Onehunga Borough Council had fallen fast asleep in connection with the celebration of the jubilee. For the benefit of your readers I wish to state that I for one was quite alive to the occasion, but unfortunately did not get the required support from the council. At a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce I asked for a letter to be sent to the council to liven them up, fittingly to celebrate the occasion, my suggestion being a day in Jellicoe for the children, fireworks at night and a. dinner for the old pioneers. The following afternoon, however, the members of the council in their wisdom could not fall in with my idea and passed a recommendation for the incoming council to issie a pamphlet outlining the history of the borough for the past 50 years to be distributed at the winter show. I, as a councillor, do not wish to be led by the hand by Auckland’s City Fathers as I am quite capable of doing my share for the advancement of our town.—Yours, etc., W. C. COLDICUTT.

EAST AND WEST

Sir,— “Never the twain shall meet,” we parrot, ignoring the fact that on the islands and shores of the Pacific and elsewhere the East and West have already met. Meet they must. And the sooner they understand one another and compose their differences the better. Superficial matters, on which ‘Right and Reciprocity” dwells, will right themselves as spiritual rapprochement, along the lines indicated in my former letter, advances. A “state of vassalage” to some extent exists in China. What else can any country expect that has received foreign loans and failed to balance its trade as China has done? China has impaired her own sovereignty. What nation has not? But there is no need cO despair. China’s financial weakness is her economic strength. Because the debtor is servant to the creditor, he has a prior claim to sell his labour or its fruits to the creditor. 'We may not justly rear unreciprocal tariffs to prevent or impede debtor nations from squaring their accounts. The wo.rst we have been told of factory conditions in China is that children of five years are employed for 12 hours a day for seven days a week. If that is wrong, who is mainly responsible? Their parents and guardians, of course, who live on their

children’s wages. But a seven day week is not wrong in Chinese eyes. And a 12-hour day is not bad to a Chinese smith who thinks nothing of working 16 hours a day at the forge. The very children are glad of the socalled “slavery” of British factories, for it means the betterment of their condition. The Bolsheviks who are creating industrial trouble in China are no friends of the Chinese, for they are killing the goose that lays the golden egg; and Mr. Chen is anxious for foreign capital to provide employment as hitherto. To complete, our capitalists must not have harder conditions imposed upon them than are imposed on others. They cannot carry on under impossible conditions which their enemies and rivals would force upon them. Free capital will go where it gets the best consideration. Our Trades Hall as well as China must bear that in mind. I renew my challenge to Britain’s detractors and maligners. RECIPROCITY IS RIGHT.

STATING A PARALLEL

Sir. — As a military man of some experience in the East (not in China, however) I trust that you will oe good enough to allow me sufficient space to reply to the Hands Off China people who have been making considerable noise lately. The question whether the foreign policy of all countries in general and of our own country in China in particular is and has been in the interests of a particular class is one, 1 think, which is easily answered in the affirmative. From the ‘eighties onward the building up of British trade in the undeveloped countries has been one of the important duties of statesmen. Now, sir, to build up trade means to acquire interests, buildings, factories, banks, etc. This process has gone on in New Zealand. Supposing that New Zealand had a large native population in the King Country. Supposing, further, that the Kingite or Ratana movement spread with great rapidity. Supposing that in 1927 the law courts in Auckland were to be done away with and native laws substituted; that our tariffs, taxes, property rights and land tenure were in danger of being swept away and you will have some faint idea of the lamentable state of the foreign communities in Chinese ports. It may be necessary to maintain a small force in China for years, but remember that we have rivals. Should we go, the Americans or French would make every effort to seize our trade and this would redound to the disadvantage of the working people in England. G. B. WICK STEAD, Major (retired).

ON WARS

Sir, — While every generous mind has passionately hoped for the end of the most harmful of all tyrannies that weigh down the human spirit, we find in the Chinese situation the story of the Great War over again. Wrong policies, long continued, have created a situation which is passing beyond human control. Ninety years of Imperialist domination; the faiuure to respond progressively to the national and democratic awakening of the Chinese people; the antagonism inflamed by the shootings at Shanghai and Shameen, and the bombardment of Wanhsein—all these have created a powder magazine. If we remain wrapped in self-righteousness, impervious to facts, we shall be surprised into reason by our mistakes. New methods in international affairs are required, not in the interests of one side or the other, but in the interests of mankind, lest civilisation and humanity should perish from the world. There is now, if men have the courage to use it, an awakening of

heart and mind; men see that war Is wicked and foolish. If statesmen will play their part by showing that war is not inevitable there is hope that our children may liva in a happier \v> l and look back upon us with the wondering pity of a wider age.

MORMONS IN NEW ZEALAND

Sir,— 4 THE May I be permitted space in F 6 SUN to protest against the attitude taken up by the Rev. Joseph Kemp on the subject of Mormons in New Zen* land. I emphatically deny (1) Thai girls and women have been and are now being decoyed to Utah for base and immoral purposes, and (2) that polygamy is being practised in otan to-day. Mr. Winston Churchill, as Home Secretary, made exhaustive inquiries and found that the charge* mentioned in the first group ww absolutely contrary to fact, and Mr. Gilbert Frankau, sent to Utah by the “ Daily Mail,” also refuted such statements and uttered a plea for the be ll * treatment of Mormon missionaries a* Home and abroad. . I would point out that Elder Ree« Smoot, an apostle of the Mopnj* Church, is a trusted member of & • Coolidge’s Cabinet. At the Bureau o Information in Salt Lake City there £2OO waiting for the man who can furnish one name of a girl or woma brought to Utah by the Mormons io infamous purposes. The Church plac • the penalty of excommunication those who offend by contracting bigamous marriages. v I challenge Mr. Kemp to fi n< * community as free from prostitution bigamy or diseases which it is " necessary to specify here as the mon colony in the West of America. Sir Maui Pomare and Mr. Hi** have, time and again, expressed a miration of the way the Maoris a conducting themselves under Mo*®®, guidance; in the words of Sir Ma ; they are turned out as “ leaders their tribes.” I leave it to the comm sense, and love of fair play, in Bn people to judge whether Mr. Kemp right or not. _ H huNT .

TO CORRESPONDENTS. W.R. (Auckland).—That i n£o E^‘ tion has already been surpli e “- -RATEPAYER’' (Point Chevalier;-