ENGLAND'S DANGER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 300, 28 May 1915, Page 6

ENGLAND'S DANGER.

AX OCTOPUS EATIN'G- AT IfER VITALS. ('Published by Arraignment). We notice that Lord Kitchener in addressing a representative Lalior meeting the other day pointed out that the national safety was being endangered on ac-Ltmiiit of the workers not giving --their best efforts to turn out munitions of war. lie complained most latterly of tne. difficulties that were being caused, owing to the men not assisting the conn, try as they should, and after a request to them to give their whole time and their best efforts, lie said that if this appeal did not produce the results he wanted, lie should consider Hie advisability of introducing other methods by which the end he desired would be attained. It requires no great effort of imagination to understand what he intended to convey, which was this, if a worker absented himself from his duty, if, being there, he pijrposely limited his efficiency, lie would be simplv taken out and shot. This may seem' a dreadful thing to predict in these davs when democracy is enthroned everywhere, but it is true, as when the vi']*v of a nation is at stake tin* enemy must be fulfil and grappled with, whether he is outside or within our gates "England to-day has not to meet one, but three foes, two of which are without, the o.iii rin her own borders. Drink is a greater menace to England to-day than the foe across the Channel. It is the octopus eating at her vitals, and is more difficult to deal with than the open attack of the Teuton. Lloyd George was aide, to manufacture hundreds of millions of credit in August last, and bv so doing revive the national credit, at a tune when ruin and disaster faced everyone: Churchill may guard the seas, and Kitchener create 'armies, but the three of them combined can do nothing against the drink enemy within. He is there too flrmlv established to be dug out, liis power js omnipotent and omnipresent, baffling every statesman, and from behind secure barriers he laughs to scorn every effort to curb his ruinous handiwork even when his deadly effects threaten the nation with loss of existence, better that Britain and the great Empire which it controls should down, than that Bung interests should be interfered with. The distilleries and breweries all over the country are so many points which cannot be carried by assault. Their legions of parson and other shareholders cry out in rage if any attempt is made to curtail their income, and threaten as reprisals to stop the funds which keep "arty flovernmcnt going. Lloyd George has been driven back, easily driven back, in his efforts to stop the flow of beer and whisky to our workers preparing arms for our soldiers, and he has "been compelled to accept the only terms the eneinv offers. There is to be no prohibition; the workers are still to be allowed to flrink themselves to death or into a condition of non-efficiency; the one and only concession the trade will give is that the stuff they sell aliall be of better quality ;han it has been in the past. Democracy must be getting near its end. We, in common with many others, look for a time when the tide will turn and the old maxim that the few must govern and the mass obey, will form the basis of our legislation. Hie trade in this country rests upon an entirely different "footing; our retailers conduct their businesses with 'all resnect for the law and we are quite sure that if the national exigencies required they would rally round the flag and would be prepared to sacrifice themselves should the necessities of the conntry at a time of national danger be served by their so doing. Peeling as we do that should the war end adversely to Britain, we out here should have to pay as penalty the loss of our country, and of our property, we regard with amazement, the action, the dangerous action, of the honor people at Home.—Mercantile Gazette of" New Zealand.