The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1918. A MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE.

Taihape Daily Times, 24 April 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1918. A MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE.

(With which is incorporated The lalbape Post and 'VValcmil-uo News).

The, inventors of scares and the purveyors of mysteries no doubt indulge their propensities in such occupations for some good purpose or with some good object; at least, it will do no one any harm to give them that credit. It might, however, be taken as an axiom that no deceitful, discreditable means can lead to the establishment of any permanent good. Therefore, the scaremongers and mystery-makers who are spreading their silly inventions among the people of our Empire should be given the short shrift their inventions merit. Not many weeks ago. a leader in our own Parliament gesticulated and raved about not being able to go to England; that he might never be able to leave these shores. What were such ravings for? It is safe to say that they were either political or the despairing outcry of a fear-strick-en man. We think it was the former. Much the same sort of silly scaremongering is being tried in Australia; it was thought to be of so much importance that newspapers were made to pay the cost of having it cabled to this country. This message appears to have been sent ftom Melbourne to Sydney, it runs: “Within the past forty-eight hours information has come to hand which points to the probability that the realities of the war will soon be brought before the Australians in the most convincing fashion. Steps are being taken by the Defence authorities to cope with the situation, which may at any moment assume grave proportions. More than this cannot be said for the present.” The most superficial etymological analysis at once eliminates any idea that the German navy is cruising off Melbourne awaiting a favourable moment to attack.' Any assumption of that kind is ■ ridiculous, hor pan there be any reference to what is taking place in Europe, for the construction of the sentence Vthat need be taken any notice of implies that the cause of danger is present, uiat it is not from anything extraneous. Although an aspect of greater mystery is given by saying “information has come to hand," it is made quite clear lower down that the information came from the local defence authorities. It is something they can cope with; and it is already present because it may assume grave proportions at any moment. This cablegram suggests one thing alone and that is civil war. Is it possible that sane labour in Australia can have been so coaxed into the German and pro-German revolutionary schemes as to take up arms against their fellowcountrymen? Labour stands off and views one section of the community of which it is a part hoarding up profits, accumulating millions while the State compels others to work for a mere existe-nde !sc that profiteering and robbery may continue. Now, it is suggested, the result of such legalised robbery is 'to be revolution. We believe that labour will never ally itself with the Empire’s enemies to the extent of joining them in a bloody fratricidal effort to destroy it from within. We would like to say to labour in New Zealand that if they would spend quarter the money and effort in organising and educating the constituencies that is involved in strikes and the other mistaken efforts that are made, there would never arise any cause -t or armed revolution, and the same applies to Australia, but peaceful, legitimate, lawful means for securing the full emancipation bf ’labour is not what these scheming, agitating servants of the German Kaiser want. They want a revolution that will end in making British Dominions an easy prey to present to their autocratic lord—and those people parade as democrats. The German Government during the past forty years has, with the permission of various Australian Governments, planted many German colonies in Australia. In some country districts the German wagon was then everywhere and ’ the British farm cart rarely seen. These Gorman settlements were no doubt a part of the German Government’s scheme for speeding on a German hegemony of the world, and those Germans and their progeny may now bo ordered, instructed or encouraged to engineer a revolution with whatever disloyal British they may press into their scheme to stop Australia from furnishing soldiers for the army in France. It is impossible to think that genuinely patriotiq, British democrats will raise revolution against their own democracy to favour a government in which they would be allowed to have no voice whatever. That there is a huge German population we know is a fact, and we can readily understand that at this crisis in the war the German . Government wi’’ •icither spare promises or money to

cajole that population into active rebellion. or to do anything, else.more- or less diabolical. 'Australia nlust be stopped from swelling the fighting i forces in France, and production must be or stopped so. that no food can be exported. If what the Australian Defence authorities have taken steps to cope with should eventuate, it will, in utmost probability, lead to the expatriation of all Germans from British communities after the. war. The assassin cannot be permitted to continue a menace to British life and empire. Wo hope, and believe that the mysterious message published yesterday is somewhat in the nature of a political scare; in any case its promulgation was reprehensible, ill-advised in the extreme. It was an ill-concealed statement that civil war might eventuate and assume grave proportions at any moment, sent out in mysterious form to upset the peace of mind of hundreds of thousand? of people. We should indeed regret to learn that it was anything more serious than a parallel to the ravings of a member of our own Parliament, similarly mysterious.