CONDENSED CORRESPONDENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 230, 27 September 1915, Page 9

CONDENSED CORRESPONDENCE.

D.W.O. Fagan. Onerahi, in strongly of optfiion that no Gfrman should he re-1 tawed in the public wrrice whether naturalised or not. J- Rjddell states that "the hydra headed aragon liquor" is the cause "of slacknr&e I •moDg worker* in Britain, an.i that the same evil .» rampant in New ZeaLind. I ine time has come, he declares, when! •tcf>a should bo taken to give us a sober people. " "A Survivor of who rep resents three generation? of soldiers, considers that as « nutter of precaution all aliens should 'be interned. He believes there are many men who are no« unjustly classed as shirkers woo would welcome conscription. The real shirker, | he thinks, should be Mnt compulsorily at Tommy Atkins' pay —1.2 a day. S. A. Oates says: •'Aβ 1 ponder and try to understand why England is fighting Germany, and why Germany is fightinc England, if men's wisdom i= so greaf Oh. that women had more wisdom to &«■" more clearly why the world should te turned to suffering and mouminc:" She believea that the remedy for 'the evil of war is the incre&eed influence ot women in the government of nation*. Devonian ' sends an extract from th* , "TVestern Times,'' Exeter, shewing that »gricultural labourers in Devonshire are paid IS/- a week for 60 hours" work, and bricklayers and carpenters at Topsham receive 6d an hour and labourers 4jd. He adds; "Yet the Labour party in New Zealand object to the-'export of food to England— to their brother workers—a' it causes an increase in prices here. This is she»-ini» our patriotism to the workers in the Homeland:"' Tom Bloodworth sends a further letter on the opposition of British workers to conscription. He says: "Mr. Thomas' speech may have shown you that I am not alone in thinking a.' I dr.. 1 do not think I have iibclleu the British workers because I know th« British worker. 1 know also that the Trade I'nion Con gTess understands the British worker far better than the House of Commons does, and I know that Mr. Thomas and oth<r Labour men understand the Briti*li o-orker far better than does Mr. L. George or the persons who are behind the Harmsworth Press, which is now. a> it has been for years, the chief agency working for ebnfcription. The attitude taken by Mr. Thomas is very much misunderstood; he is not opposing conscription because he wishes to hamper the Government, he is opposing, it because he (iocs not wish the Government to hamper themselves by attempting to enforce it. The workers of England do not orfpose conscription because they are less patriotic than our Allies or our enemies. I think events have shown that on the whole they are more patriotic, but their opposition rests on a psychological basis which the Labour leader* realise, but which Mr. Lloyd George, Lord Northcliffe. and the Government utterly fail to und<rstand. In conscription the British worker *res Prussianism, the very thing he i* fight ing against. He may be wrong in this. I am not concerned with that aspect of the ca.«e now. but years of training in the school of British ideas have- de veloped that attitude of mind in the British worker, and it will not be overcome by ascrely pawing » 1 1W - ot *>" » thousand 'eloquent appeals from Mr. Lloyd George.'" "Bara Fostus" *nta: "When de claiming against consci.ption it would be well if correspondents would produce dome tangible r»o*ons ior its being Itit in abeyance. Britain to-day _i ficed *ita a'peril little understood or realised by the lirge percentage of our people. \V»r. it is admitted, is a gigantic evil »nd few ever realise all war really implies. Bat to long as we are; faced by the mpenduig dangers it is our duty to face heroically the enemie* who would ruthle*»ly destroy oar aviUs»t.on. It i* absurd to cry -atinking rka' when th* enemy m within' tht gates- It ii eb.Jd.sh when trouble aJises to lie quiescent while the foe tramples human liven in the du*t. We now know exactly where we are . We have experienced Gernunye method* of waging war. Let the opponent* of universal eervice recill We bloody caraag* ensuing »t tho front, ex amine our various, battles, and una;-.ne h*d ** bad an army relatively corr.pa: able with the enemy't. how much further towards conclusion of the war we would havr been to-day To drift on indeanitelv means utter annihilation of t&« British Empire, the dtgnfetjiOß of •« our holiest aspirations, all that which ha* made ua what we now are. tae m.gnt :sh conscription i, Cermany .horrible ni-htxare. She long* and hopes fo. Teethin? discontent. The tnutt. union,, and the unionist leaders w.ll intervene to check universal service. It is her only, Shorten this Armageddon by a hundred ( llvs by conniption, and it m«n.« wnne , thousands of mto —i, an itcoi the our own V I Clare sonds us an extract rwived by a lady friend in England tome time, are being killed off by the faft , «d«ng ««« —~ J m Thirt | "Tv" co-m«V Truth tote... I .-| land wucre - dJ about an j v , themselves from work on -M,.n ir"l C add.,': -This i-ve,. ,p.«-.»l fare to the cabled reference to tue LloydGeortte'. declaration that hr Onnanic jioweri po*"** "» ""Tj vl.clmmc superiority in war materia 31 "uipment. deep.te the resource, of EnrfSd. Fran" and Russia and the whole industrial