The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1917. SEDITION-MONGERING.

Taihape Daily Times, 14 May 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1917. SEDITION-MONGERING.

(With which is incorporated The Taihapo Post and Walnmsl'io News).,

During a period of unparalleled slaughter of human life it is, perhaps, not unreasonable to assume there should be unparalleled display of what is generally referred to as seditious language. Men’s minds are, very naturally, variously affected by the casualty lists that are cabled to this country and by the accounts of the many thousands killed, mangled, and mutilated in Europe. Some intelligences cannot stand the strain of allowing their'thoughts to dwell upon the horrifying carnage brought into the world by Prussianism, and they break forth into emotional displays and use language that is not the outcome of a sound, healthy, reasoning faculty. There are also those amongst us who appear to have comparatively high class intelligences; they are clever and can sway multitudes with their powers of speech, and still there is something wanting in their reasoning* for they do not seem to be able to mentally weigh the deeper questions of life; they are mere babblers, make a great noise, cause much commotion and create considerable trouble and do not appear to be able to appreciate the existence of the abstruseness of a good deal in connection with this great world irruption. They are superficial reasoners; they see their fellows taken from them and sent to Europe to save the whole world from slavery, but like the animal that feels the first prick of the goad to urge it out of dan. ger of death, they kick out resentfully and viciously, not realising the death others are endeavouring to save them from. Perhaps the worst class of se-dition-mongers is that which General Maurice fairly represents. To this class belong the profiteers, those who have an uncontrollable lust for power and an insatiable greed. Everything in life and even life itself is remorselessly used by them as stepping-stones to the gratification of their unnatural lusts. They would even sacrifice governments, peoples and empires, every, thing that is honourable, sacred and> holy, to attain the cravings of their blackened souls. They are not actuated by desire to save or assist their fellow-men; if they ever had humane characteristics those qualities are deadened by being so persistently kept out of practice. We see men in this class in varying degrees of ahandon and degradation, from he who would sell his empire for lordly dominion over it, right down through the Lenins, Trotskys, and on past the. General Maurices and the rabid antlconscriptionists, and those who contribute largely to the army of sedition, mongers, those men who see the wives and mothers of heroes who have gone to fight in semi-starvation yet must have their pound of flesh in the shape of their from 100 to 500 per cent, profit on the food and clothing they sell. The sedition-monger is a, man to be pitied, still more is he one to be repressed. The man who resents the intolerable profiteer with all the legal force he is capable of is a patriot of th e highest order, but such outbursts of unpardonable irrationalism as the Rev. Chappie, of Christchurch, is charged with are dangerous in the extreme. With nauseating bathos he opposes men going to fight the Germans; he would have none go. Mr. Chappie, in his mental lapse, does not realise that his home, like the homes of Belgians, Servians, Russians and others would fall into the power of the murderer and ravager. Is the home of the Britisher such that it. Is not worth fighting for? Mu. Chappie has probably some notion that Germany would not trouble New Zealand if New Zealanders did not go to fight in Europe; he has enjoyed the comforts of a British home so long that it does not occur to him that anyone, German, Turk or other savage would disturb him if he offered no resistance, but what do we see in Russia?

Germany is out to control the world I and all that is therein, and the Rev. ( Chappie would soon find that his home would be no more immune from the murderer, ravager and slave-master chan the homes of educated Russians, .is Mr. Chappie would risk his life in fighting a fire that would destroy his home and his loved ones, so he would fight the German menace when he saw it was real, but he does not appear to comprehend what the real situation is. He sees men going away to the war, he reads accounts of their death, of them being wounded and-he is seized with a fit of uncontrollable passionate resentment, and he becomes an object of pity on whom it \ becomes necessary to exercises restraint. . He would not have his children sing the national anthem or salute the flag; he hoped that all the war loans would be repudiated; he wanted to see, before he died, New Zealand in a revolution that should be I the counterpart of that in Russia, j Surely such a man has lost control of i his senses. It is unthinkable that any I man but he that is consumed with an uncontrollable blood lust could wish anything of the nature of the Russian revolution in New Zealand, and yet the Rev, Chappie hopes to see it before he dies, and he would not let ar single man go from this country to help in destroying the national beast that precipitated such a revolution. Because those who have given their sons cannot have them restored after the war Mr. Chappie would not restore the money that has been used in fighting Germany, There is a faint shadow of reason in this, but, without going further into abstractions, let us satisfy ourselves that the nation, realsing that it can neither restore, life )r adequately conpensate for its loss, is earnestly, justly!, honourably' and humanely doing all that it should or can do to that end. Is the nation going as far as it is humanly possible to liquidate the blood debt as it is the debt of money? It must be borne in mind that greater misery''must only result from going to extremes that could only end in financial strangulation. New Zealand is faced with a great question, one which the greatest and most just intelligences will eventually have to solve. There may be winking at profiteering at this stage, and even outright robbery be to some extent tolerated, but to save this land from anything approaching the revolution fn' Russia the Chappies, : Youngs, Hollands, General Maurices and all others guilty of seditious and traitor-ous-speech and action must be suppressed. These men must not be allowed to interfere with this country’s help in. .winning,, the war, for to lose that would open up the way to all , those bloody and horrifying scenes we j have mentally witnessed in conquered j countries in Europe.