The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, JULY 5, 1918. THE WIMMERA MURDERS.

Taihape Daily Times, 5 July 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, JULY 5, 1918. THE WIMMERA MURDERS.

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Walnwuri-ao News).

Germany has again (been guilty cTf one of those unnatural crimes which is past air - human comprehension. Germans have deliberately attacked ao. unprotected, an unconvoyed Canadian hospital ship and have endeavoured to send it to the bottom of the sea with every soul on board, nurses, doctors and crew, leaving not a trace of the unspeakable diaholism that the brutal, criminal commander of the submarine -was guilty of. He sank the ship, and then shelled tSe" boats containing survivors, sinking and drowning or blowing to pieces with nis guns the men and women who would have had a perilous journey of one hundred and seventy miles in rowing themselves to land. Fortunately, one boat escaped, and its occupants are telling the blood-chilling story. Not since the sinking of the, Lusitania has Germany caused such a ! wave of contempt and loathing against abandoned brutal methods of warfare. ■! We have it on the authority of Von Kuhlmann that Germans know their submarine blockade is a failure; that the Allies are building ships much faster than they can destroy them; the submarine commander knew that the Llandovery Castle was a hospital ship, if only from the fact that it was not armed and not convoyed; then his only object in sending his torpedoes on such a mission was to have the pleasure and gratification of seeing struggling doctors and nurses going to their death while he did revolver practice on their writhing bodies. Mr. Bcnar Law told the Parliamentary Conference that this unspeakable outrage furnished all the evidence to show that it was an attempt to sink in accordance with the famo~us telegram Germany had despatched to all submarine commanders, that ships must disappear without leaving a trace. He said nothing could be gained by talking;. "A wild beast is at large; it is no use arguing or reasoning; we must destroy it, must set our teeth until the end is achieved." Seamen and peoples of all truly civilised nations are demanding and insisting upon means being taken to prevent recurrences of such a crime. There is a clamour for the internment of every German in British territory, whether he he naturalised or not. In Australia, seamen express extreme detestation of Germany's latest crime; ther want very German in Australia interned, and they have taken as their motto, "Remember our torpedoed brothers." The rising tide against Germans is unparalleled since the Lusitania murders; Sir Geo. Cave"has been recalled from the Exchange of Prisoners ' • Conference in Holland, with the prospect of entering upon some far-reaching internment scheme in England. In Ireland. Germans, naturalised and unnaturalised, are not to he allowed within ten miles of the seacoast. The British House of Commons will discuss the further control of aliens, and Mr. Havelock Wilson has announced that owing to Germany's latest crime the British Seamen's Union will extend their afterwar boycott of German sailors to a period of six years. There seems to he a violent blaze of indignation and resentment in all Allied countries hut in our own. New Zealanders have had ships sunk by German Bombs" and German mines; the lives of New Zealand citizens—men, women 'and children — have been ruthlessly taken; ships have 'been destroyed and much treasure sent to the bottom of the ocean, and let us ask: "What are New Zealanders going to do about if" German raiders, mine-layers and seaplanes cannot operate within a few miles of our coast for months together without German assistance from the shores; German vigilance in assisting German piracy cannot be kept up without German money, and German vigilance and German help cannot be kept effective without Germans in our midst to con-

trol tlie funds that, are necessary to keep active the German scheme oft murder and destruction that we knowto our bitter cost has Ibeen instituted in the waters around this country. Wbat are New Zealanders going to do about it? There are currents of indignation and resentment noticeable in a few isolated places; Gisborne and Wanganui Borough Councils are calling upon the Government to cancel all naturalisations and to Infern all aliens; they realise"thaT the sinking of New Zealand ships and the •wholesale murder of New Zealand citizens .their wives and children, can only be done with the aid of German residents in New Zealand, and they want all Germans put beyond being accessory to such murder. Let all our people make., no mistake about the German campaign of murder around our shores, and let them luHy'realise thac all those Germans in our midst who have contributed only "one penny towards the funds to give help from land to these campaigns are equally guilty of the crimes of massacre and murder of our citizens as the commander of the ship that laid the mine, fired the torpedo, or ordered the explosion of the lamb. Is our Government taking any steps to keep Germans off our coasts; is our Governmetn doing anything at all to destroy the actual source of these piracies and mass murders? We know that the Government is doing a lot of spying and searching for enemy mine-layers; that great risks are being taken in patrolling our waters, ibut the German organisation that plans and directs the campaign of murder ashore is givea perfect freedom; our Government is concerning itself about The detection of the crime more than about the I source of it, and will not realise that the enemy organisation is too perfect, and those in control of it are too many and to clever to be caught redhanded by our puny efforts. It is indeed regrettable that any well-dis-posed Germans in our midst should have to bear any part of the penalty for the sins of their murderous kinsmen, but the safety of tFe lives of New Zealand citizens and thei protec-tion-of-New Zealand sea commerce must be assured whatever the cost, and despite the fact that an innocent few'may suffer:- German audacity in approaching our shores is increasing, and if very comprehensive searching 'steps are not taken to render aliens in our midst innocuous by placing them where they can do ru? harm in directing raiders and giving them information about the movements of our transports, we have utmost reason to expect that a shipload of our Second Division men will be sent to eternity, if possible, without trace, and a few hundreds of widows and a thousand or so of orphans will have cause to curse the powers who could, and did not, make due effort to render such a catastrophe impossible. Australian seamen are ; "taking ; action; their slogan is "Remember "our torpedoed brothers." What are New Zealand seamen doing, are they' remembering their mined and bombed brothers? Ireland has decreed that no alien shall go nearer than ten miles of the coast, what is the New Zealand Government going to do? The British/Government is to discuss further control of aliens in Britain, what is the New Zealand Government going to do-to avert the outrageous crimes of the Wimmera character? Is the blcod of New Zealanders so cold that even a Wimmera does not appreciably affect its temperature? Will nothing less than the loss of a transport loaded with husbands and fathers stir the resentment of our people, for to expect German enterprise "in life destruction to cease now is as criminal as German intentions to continue.