The ODD ANGLE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 279, 25 November 1941, Page 6

The ODD ANGLE

(By MacCLURE) • AVOID MISUNDERSTANDING A reputed wise man once said that he who escapes being misunderstood by anyone must never speak to anyone about anyone, never listen to anyone, must never even look at anyone, let alone taste, smell, or feel anyone. "Then," he added, "if he's lucky he may not arouse the suspicions of anyone." That is, bar the police, of course. After ail, their job is to suspect anyone and everyone of anything. And they never overlook these silent blokes. They can't afford to. • COLOURED CHEESE Some time ago Australians were worried over tne allegation of dye being used in inferior orands of tea. 1 understand some Court action was taken, but am not in possession of the details. From personal observation of cups from wnich tea has been poured out, the writer has his own suspicions—but that's as far as he has got to date. It is always possible, however, that the authorities responsible for the purity of the people's food—and drink—are up to these colourings and adulterations. MacClure would like to be convinced of this as he has had one or two personal experiences that leave him, well, suspicious anyhow. • COSTLY GOVERNMENT? Those who think we are taxed too heavily for the upkeep of this land of ours may be interested to know we have always been. In an ancient volume by Washington Wilks dealing with the trials of Britain's Government in 1546 I find this item— as proving we "were flagrantly misgoverned." Don't laugh. "In New Zealand Governor HoDson incurred debts to the amount of £68,000; his successor, Captain Fitzroy, spent £20,000 a year in governing 15,000 people—and this costly government by no means including protection from the natives." • AN ALIEN REFUGEE He was only an alien refugee two years in the country and knowing that he had been on "the dole" for some time (from his own statement to me) 1 naturally helped him out. In answer to my query whether he was still on it he told me "No— the trouble is I took on some work and now I've got to wait till I can get back on it." Fit? i wish I was as fit as that fellow. But we can't all be aliens, exempt from war service—and on the dole. • THAT VISITING KOOKABURRA The kookaburra heard earlier in the week at Wanganui may have come across in repiy to the unkind insinuations made in the House a little while back by our Robert Semple. After all, even a kookaburra has its rights. Our own native birds are protected and to liken the care-free laugh of a kookaburra to the shrillings of a mere Opposition member may have been construed as an insult by our Australian visitor. • THE PACK I The present new British offensive | now in its initial stage in Cyrenaica comes as no surprise to those of us who were satisfied (and said) that Churchill would start one exactly when he chose and at the precise moment he chose without reference to the hysterical Shinwells and other lip-serving loud-mouthed soap-box orators — and local Communists. Apart from this species of "Friends of the Soviet Union"—why, by the way. have never (or at any time within the writer's memory) expressed any faith whatsoever in Britain's Prime Minister, nor in his colleagues, nor in Britain's policy, nor in the sincerity of her pledges to their beloved Russia—apart as I said from them, there is a generally conceded confidence in our one and only Winston's ability to handle this war. If he failed to live up to this view we hold of him, MacClure believes that Churchill is big enough to step down and let this yelping pack run the war for him—always, provided, of course, they can prove their loyalty to Britain first—and that they have a plan that, in the judgment of intelligent men—has the remotest chance of achieving more substantial and quicker results. The only pity about it all is that this species of patriot is out to fight (nowadays—and by word of mouth) not only the Hitler regime but most things British—including Churchill. • TOM BRACKEN'S VIEW

Tom Bracken knew all this and expressed it so admirably in "Not Understood." Unfortunately his first London publishers evidently didn't understand the poem and in printing it mangled it completely by making the last line read, "They'd be near Thee, not understood," instead of "They'd be nearer Thee AND understood." In our Public Library this edition can be seen, also the pencilled correction—whether in the poet's handwriting or not I cannot say.

The Rev. F. Copeland would have us believe the Methodist Church's attitude to the war is being misunderstood. 'There is an impression abroad that in this terrible world conflict the Methodist Church is unwilling to take its place." he stated at the Methodist annual Synod. "That impression," he insisted, "is not true.". There were individual Methodists who were pacifists in varying degrees, but the Church was wholeheartedly behind the Empire's war effort. That is splendid news and, as one good turn deserves another, let me remind him that, although, undoubtedly, odd ones in the ranks in the Western Desert would sooner be having the easy time these "pacifists of varying degree," are having at home here, they (the Second N.Z.E.F.) are wholeheartedly interested in winning the war, too, and can be trusted to defend them and their Church against Hitler. • THE "AWFUL STIGMA" This new Western Desert campaign, coming on top of the Rev. F. Copeland's pitiously expressed concern for the poor, outraged Wesleyan and other conscientious objector, should make the next-of-kin of our friends and admirers of our Second N.Z.E.F. boys feel very sick. That's how the reverend gentleman's solicitude for the poor "conchie" leaves me, at any rate. The awful "stigma" of the newlv-established defaulters' camp for these misguided (and, in many cases, arrant cowards) should be regarded cheerfully by these—er—gentlemen, as honoured martyrdom—of the sort they glory in. Into the injunction of Jesus, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me," the "Christian pacifist" should try and visualise the little children of Coventry and other bombed British cities—and our own little ones—who vainly look to them for defence—to the mothers who bore them and whom they shame— to the feeble, the sick, the lame. halt, and blind—and to their serving fellows—to whom they have responsibilities and obligations. In doing this they could rightly earn the citizen rights they are to-day in possession of —thanks to the weakness of cur regulations.