The Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1888. UNVEILING OF GORDON’S STATUE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1807, 25 October 1888, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1888. UNVEILING OF GORDON’S STATUE.

A London cablegram states that General Gordon’s statue was unveiled without any ceremony, because the authorities were afraid the Socialists would make a counter demonstration, from which unpleasant complications would arise. No less an authority than the Eight Hon. Mr Plunkett, a member of Lord Salisbury’s Government, is given for this. This is ominous. It is a very serious state of affairs when the Government of Great Britain is deterred from making a demonstration in the metropolis of the Empire by fear of Socialists. It denotes that the Socialists are strong, and as present legislation has a tendency to increase their number, it is nothing unreasonable to expect serious consequences to result from the strengthening of their forces. From the first the Salisbury Government have acted the part of cowardly bullies. They bludgeoned and bayonetted the poor unfortunate people of London for having the audacity to hold public meetings to give expression to public grievances; they have imprisoned a great many Irish people, and have done some of them to death, for exactly the same crime. The death of ’ Mr Mandeville and the suicide of Dr Eidley mark a stain on the Salisbury Administration which can never be effaced so long as a history of England remains to be read, and the bludgeoning and bayonetting of the working men of London because they wished to give expression to the fact that they were unemployed, and consequently starving, is a disgrace to civilisation. The men who thus outraged- decency and public opinion so recently have not the pluck now to unveil the statue of General Gordon in a manner befitting such a great occasion for fear that Socialists would make a counter demonstration. Such cowardliness ill became persona celebrating an event to perpetuate the memory of one of England’s most courageous and grealest of heroes. With what contempt would not he who turned defeat into victory in China and faced undaunted hosts of Arabs at Khartoum single-handed, and with only a walking stick to defend himself, have looked upon such conduct? How unworthy of him was the ceremony of unveiling his statue. For our own part we do not believe a word of the assertion that Socialists would have at all interfered with the unveiling of General Gordon’s statue. There was nothing in the life of that great man to provoke such a demonstration. He was always on the side of the poor and afflicted during his lifetime ; when not engaged on the battlefield in fighting for extending human liberty he was hard at work in trying to ameliorate the condition of suffering and indigent humanity. Many a man in a good position to-day owes his first start in life to General Gordon, and as it is well-known that few men have in this century exhibited more genuine sympathy with the poor than he did, we do not believe that there is a Socialist alive who would interfere with a ceremony got up in his honor. The present Government appear to be in the same nervous state of excitement that persons guilty of murder are generally supposed to be in. Murderers are said to be always in terror of the ghosts of their victims arising up in judgment against them, and it is probably so with the Salisbury Government. They have been guilty of great crimes against the people, and consequently are afraid of them. At any rate, the fact that they refrained from celebrating the event referred to in a befitting manner that the, Socialists are powerful enough to be feared, and this does not augur well for the peace of London.