STIRRING CALL TO ARMS.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 January 1916, Page 3

STIRRING CALL TO ARMS.

t- .an " "LET US GO OUT TO FIGHT." STRONG DENUNCIATION OF LABOI PARASITES. COMMONWEALTH PRIME MINISTEI SPEAKS. : \ A stirring call to arms was given bi the Commonwealth Prime Minister wher speaking at a crowded recruiting meet ing in Melbourne recently. "Never until the last flame has beer quenched, and until the world is freec from :tJiis terrific instrument of militan despotism, can we say that we have done enough; because never until thai day could we, as Australians, say thai we are safe," he declared. "Some said "Why should I fight ? How does it concern me?' 'Mv friends," said Mr. Hughes earnestly, "it concerns you as life concerns you, as.death concerns you. It is something you cannot evade. The consequences of defeat will roll over you like a juggernaut, crushing you utterly out of all semblance to a free man. "'Why should I fight for Australia?' some say 'and for capitalists who own Australia'? No man will accuse me of touching a lance in favor of capitalists. But I say to those men that there is something more in this country than mere material things. In this country, owiilg to the heroic efforts of those who went before us, we have the key to liberty that, will open all dcoi)9. (Cheers.) Will you use it? If you will not, then stand aside, and let those use it who will. "I appeal to the people of this country," said the Prime Minister, "to join the expeditionary forces. I appeal to the manhood of Australia. I do,.not appeal to those men, who, posing as lovers of liberty, do what they can to prevent men from joining the forces. These men—l must speak plainly—these men pretend to speak as the mouthpiece of ( Labor and unionism, but they have nothing in common with Labor or unionism. (Great cheering). They are foul parasites. They have attached v themselves to the vitals of Labor. They seek, as it were, to take up their foul abode in the vitals of their host—to speak for him, to usurp those functions which belon'g to him. There is between Syndicalism—that is its name—and Unionism and Labor, as we know it in this country, a gulf as wide as hell. (Loud cheers.) "If the world," Mr. Hughes continued, "depended upon the strength of the arms of these people, who speak as lovers of liberty, it would have been in chains today. These men sneer at patriotism, because the very sound of it cuts them to the quick—because patriotism is based upon the sacrifice of self, and their , religion is the apotheosis of self. Self is the beginning and ending of everything they have. (Great applause). These men know no nationality, religion, or principle, and in the name of Unionism and Laborism I pass them out like devils out of swine. (Tremendous applause). Unionism to-day has found rerepresentatives in the armies. One of the unions to which I have the honor to belong contains only 5000 members, and has over 1200 fighting at the front. The waterside workers have sent 4000, and the Australian Workers' Union over 20,000. Are these men, who are the very bone and sinew of unionism, to be told their duty by these people who babble about peace, and who have a good word for every country except this? No. Leit- tliein stand where they will, so long as they stand not with us. (Applause.) "I have said enough," said the Prime Minister, in conclusion, "but not too much. I appeal to the men of Australia to do what lies in their powef to help U9 in ithis great struggle. I appeal to every man to fight for his country, because this is as much a battle for Australia as it is a battlefield for Britain or any part of the Empire. It may be that this war will yet find its way to our very shores. There is only one way to avert it, and that is by going out to meet the foe. Let us go out to meet them, and not stand here like cravens, to wait until they come here to us." (Prolonged applause)