The Press. SATURDAY.NOVEMBER 28, 1911 The Election and the War.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15137, 28 November 1914, Page 8

The Press. SATURDAY.NOVEMBER 28, 1911 The Election and the War.

We are not surprised that the Opposition newspapers affect to ridicule our fears that if tho Government which or{lanised and despatched the T£speditionary Force is put out. of office at tho .coining eler'tion the fact will he seizod upon !'.v tho Gorman Press Bureau as a choice item with which to give an air ot' probability to tho lies with wliich it. i.- endeavouring to poison public opinion in every neutral country in the ■world. Neither ridicule nor denial, however, can alter the facts of tho ra?o. Kvcrvbody knows the-malignant activity of the Germans in seizing upon every circumstance likely to |bo of use in their campaign of lies and slander. A recent'cablo message told us of tho falsehoods being circulated in Bulgaria ■and Italy to serve- tho German ends, and this morning's telegrams inform us that tho yellow Press of America has fiecn bought outright with German -money, and that tho most shameless mendacities, purporting to come direct from Berlin by wireless, are being c ' r " • c\ilated wholesale in German newspapers published in the United States. To say'that Germany is indifferent to what goes on in tho self-governing Dominions shows a culpablo ignorance of what every Britain ought to know. Germany counted confidently on the disloyalty of tho British, oversea Dominions. General Bermiardi, in "Germany and the Next War." said: — . "There is another danger which " concerns England more closely "and directly threatens her vitality. " This is duo to tho nationalist move- " ment in India and Egypt, to tho "growing power of Islam, to the agi- •' tation for independence in tho great -'• colonic*, as well as to the supremacy '• of the low German element in South .■"Africa." And if anyone wants to know tho measure of Germany's rage and mortification at finding how grievously she miscalculated on this matter, let, them see tho offensive caricatures rothe British Dominions which are appearing in the German newspapers, eomo of which aro reproduced j!i last night's "Evening News." But it is not because wo care twopence for what the German lie-factories may turn out that we insist that ihe people of New Zealand should not dismiss from office tho Government which has done so much to uphold tho loyalty of the Dominion in this crisis. It is because we believe it is in t"*o interest of the Empire, as well as of Now Zoalnnd, that tho Government which has throughout, shown by its actions that it believes in national defence, and which organised the Expeditionary Force in tho faco of jeers and abuso from tlu> other side, should nut bo displaced by those who are ready '■noujih now with lin service, but who in the past, under political pressure, srhowed' themselves willing to tamper with, tho Defence Act, and who oponly opposed tho organisation of the Kxpeditiouary Force. Wo are now challenged and put to the proof on this point, and in mother column wo print a full history of the campaign against Mr Allen, to whom the Expeditionary Force is jutillr due, and our readers will find

< - -ha;-,t»r nnd vorsf for the statements j uo have ina'lo They will foe what- was j«aid iiy co: tain leaders and organs of j tho Opposition when the iirst steps were taken for the organisation of the I'lrcp. -nrl we ask any candid person to Miy. ;ifter rending these captions ar.d oftentivo criticisms, whether it is at all likely, ii a ••Liberal' , (iovornment had !''cen in power, they would have been in :i position to be frrst in tho field with m offer -if an oversea expedition, and whether jiuh a could have lieen got tt'voy, h<7\vevor urgent the need, with Mif'h pronjptitudo as irai possible when '.h g > nrriingenients wero put in hand a year or moro l>efore the need for iio services aettially arose. Wo -Aiil do vSir Jo.<<-ph Ward and the members of liis pp.rty generally the credit of ihm sine:- the outbreak of v.-ar the\ l>n\,- the (Government their support, mul ye lieliovo they are !.ow that Mr AI! en proved so far-.sic;}ited .and -.vent o-i v.ith lil~» preparations- in fife of their .adver.se <;riti-<-i?m. Tin'fa't remains, however,that they di-I their to -'crab ,, tho iiioveii'.c'ru at- the ont.'ci. and they have now ;dii«.>--I i.lieir.M'lve-, with the ''Red '• Kerl ,, party. om> of tho main planks in r.-h(iye platform is tho abolition of ihr- system ci natioLrtl rlofence. And ii fi)llu\v.> :i« certainly as the night follows the day thai- if Sir Joseph Ward Kot-p inu> office with the assistajice of tin- Red l-\'ds. he will have to do their bidding.