JUDGE WILLIS AND ME.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 117, 16 June 1909, Page 4

JUDGE WILLIS AND ME.

To the Editor. sir,---A correspondent l.i. your issue of 10-day couple* my name'with tnaiol .Judge Willis. ! feel honored at being >o associated. Why? It must be >e* cause he is a peacC 1 man and I am humbly following in his steps somewhat. that should he nothing remarkable; there are so many peace men you are. Mr. Editor, and so is the Kaiser, and so is Mr. Balfour ami Lord Robert-., and, in fact, all men worth MUoting; the only thing is that they differ a*» to how to allow their sentiments —by a dove and olive-branch °r by an eagle. I am a peace man and willing to iru>t the present Liberal Government in England to maintain the peace, and think that they know better what is necessary in the way ofXavyand Anmy than we do here at the Antipodes; in fact. I am quite with the Labor party and think that their war estimates iwerc too large, in the face of other needs, ilowever. I must not discuss that; I ; merely wish to state brieily why I am not seared. I tell it in a bit of history. As a .schoolboy 1 remember the Crimean War and how we boys were taught (just as our boys are' taught now. German instead of Russian) that the Russians were everything that was bad. and our natural enemies. Of courso, there are natural enemies, such as a Ilea or a wolf. But 'that day passed and we were at pea."e with Russia. Then

as a young man I was .in the French panic of the early sixties. Xapolcon 111. wa- to invade England; and then I. was repealed what Campbell sang —"His hauliers at Boulogne armed in our island a every freeman" and the man who <• would not volunteer was evervthin-j t that wa> bad. That panic, too, passed, > and wc had the •"entente cordinle" with t France. ' A bit later, after intermediate I; minor scares, there came the time when i; Sir 11. Campbell-Bannerman was Seere- a tary for \\ar, and the Opposition raised t the alarm that there was not enough a cordite on hand'in case of war, and so. -1 on the charge of being unprepared for war (or war sea re), ihe Liberals were put out. The sequel was. however, very I in I ere-| ing: three or four years lat»'r •; Ihe Boer War broke out under Con- 1 ••erv iti\e guidance, and. alas! they were 1 I mu So, Sir, 1 possess v n'iv s-oul « "lid support the party" that j ( will not neglect social reform because 1 the Germans think they need more ' ships— peniiap* they do.—| : im. |i ' GKO. 11. MAI'XDER. 11 'l3th June. BIO!). |.