ALIENS IN THE NORTH.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 32, 7 February 1916, Page 9

ALIENS IN THE NORTH.

(To the Editor.) Sir—ln your issue of the 19th January Mr. G.*L. Seansie offers the old, worn-out explanation of the Slav question which, it seems to mc, does in no way explain the vital points of the question. No country in Europe consists of a single nation which gives the Empire its name; each empire is made up of several small countries which have had at some time their own independent government. As the several small Slav States have been incorporated with the j Austrian Empire for a long time, the, Slavs are as truly Austrian subjects as j any from other parts of Austria. It, would be useless to say, in viewing the | Slav question generally, that any bond of brotherhood exists between the several Slav nations in Southern Europe. The Bulgarians, as truly Slavs as the Serbians, have treated the Serbians with more cruelty than what the Germans did with the Belgians. As for the Slavs in New Zealand, they have not, so far, proved that they really sympathise with the Serbians, nor that they would like to see Austria beaten. 1 think it is time Mr. Seansie and the rest of his countrymen realised that proclamations and suchlike things are not sufficient p.roof of their sincerity. This is a time for actions, not for words. At the meeting! Mr. Seansie speaks of only their own language is spoken, and the British know nothing of what really takes place. Their brother Slavs are being murdered wholesale in Serbia; they themselves have been oppressed and illtreated by the Austriaas, according to their accounts, for centuries; and now when the long-for time has at last come, when they at once could help Serbia and tight for'their own liberty, they amuse themselves by holding meetings and reading proclamations. JBut there is stiJl a graver side to the question, which Mr. Seansie and everybody else overlooks. At least half of the Slavs in New Zealand are naturalised British subjects. They are supposed to be, to all intents and purposes, Britishers. So far I have heard endless talk of sympathies with Serbia, but I don't know a single instance of any Slav talking about his duty to the British Empire. Mr. Seansie says that the Slavs m New Zealand have done their duty to the Empire, a thing which I entirely fail to see. The money subscribed by the Slavs towards various relief funds looks very much like a bribe paid to ensure safe residence in New Zealand; it proves

nothing at all. The few Slavs who have enlisted and gone with the Expeditionary i Force certainly have proved their sincer- ; ity, but I do not see how it explain the inactivity of the multitude left behind. There is only one way for the >-lavs to prove their sincerity in their sympathies with Serbia, or their loyalty to Britain, and that is by enlisting in i the Expcditionry force. Any other j argument must always be considered by every sensible Britisher as futile, and the presence of such a large body of doulitful people in the Auckland province must always b e regarded as a grave danger to the country.—l am. etc., TROOPER F. BLOOMFIELD, ... ~ 11th A.M.R. I iiailiarara, February -, 101(3.