A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16215, 18 May 1918, Page 8

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

The sedition, case heard and decided yesterday in Christchurch was of a totally different character from that heard before the same Magistrate.a fendays ago, -when three defendants were sentenced to imprisonment for proposing a resolution held to be seditious at a recent public meeting. The defendant yesterday, the "Rev." J. H. G. Chappie, while posing as a teacher of religion, has for some considerable time past been a menace to the community. His teachings have been practically those of tho Bolshevists, whom, indeed, he styled in one of his lectures • "The Glorious Bolshevists." Ho advocated tho repudiation of loans in New Zealand, <md referred to the practice of children saluting the flag and singing the National Anthem as "introducing tho "patriotic poison into our schools." He said he hoped that in this war there would be no victor. "We know what it r would mean, if v such an infamous wish,

came true. It would mean a victory for tho Poire- whose soldiers —not in the heat of battle, but as part of tho organised system of their text-books —violate girls in the presence of their parents, toss babies on bayonets, aiul massacre aged men and women in cold blood. It means a victory for the Power that introduced poison gas, the torpedoing of harmless merchant vessels, and the bombing of defenceless cities. The Germans know that they cannot win now, and the best they can hope for is a ''draw,' so that they can prepare for a second and more successful attempt to impose their ''knltnr" 011 the world. That .Mr Cliapple would give them if he had Jiis way. It may be said that such disloyal and seditious balderdash can only impose on the most ignorant class of the community. That is no doubt truo. but, in our judgment, the fact that he addressed himself to this class in a crisis like the present made his conduct all the more dangerous and reprehensible. That he should use the cloak of religion to propagate his infamous and pernicious doctrines is worse still, and lie may consider himself very leniently dealt with in that he has been sentenced to only eleven months' imprisonment. We should have been pleased if a, sentence of deportation at the end of that term could have been added. We do not want in this well-

orderod community men whoso only idea is to wreck the existir»; order of things. l?ussia blindly delivered itself up into the wreckers' hands and wo see tho resiil;.

There is no doubt the Defence authorities are quite right, and tha Mayor of Lyttelton, although ho means well, is wrong, in reference-to the point as to whether relatives of men returning by hospital .shiph should or should not be allowed to go on the wharves to meet the men. The relatives are naturally desirous of seeing the boys directly they arrive, but it is impossible to land fjom a .ship a number of invalid and disabled men, including a number of cot cusiv;, on a. wharf that is crowded with civilians. The plan adopted yesterday of closing the wharf to civilians enabled the hospital train to be loaded up speedily and comfortably. It was far better for the patients, and although the long-looked-for meeting was <!cJerred a little, we are suro that it lost none of it s pleasure when it actually took place. Hie news that Mr Charles Hughes lias undertakon, at the President's request, an investigation into the aircraft situation in the United States, will strengthen public lieiief that there is something very wrong with this branch of America's war work. This, will be at least tho third enquiry into the subject. The Senate Military Committee probed it deeply some j months ago, and early last month 1 presented a report which must have given the nation a distinct shock. It is no surprise to learn that among' other things the Committee asserted that .the statements of Mr Newton Baker, .Secretary of "War before the Committeo were "super-opti-. mistic." That term could well be applied to Mr Baker's public uttoranccs, as was proved by the fact that after ho had given tho nation to understand that American planes were reaching France in largo numbers, it was officially stated that just four had boen sent over. It now turns out that evon these were not fighting planes. « Despite this disillusionment, there is no doubt that tho American public as a whole believed that its Air Department was doing a tremendous amount of work, and that American aeroplanes would soon begin to exorcise tho influence on the war that was oxpectod when Congress last year passed a vote for the purpose of 120 millions sterling. But the Senato Committee's report showed that there are no fighting planes of American construction at the front, and that the Government does not contemplate making any this year; that tho assertions of membors of Iho Senato that America will net be able to land more than thirty-seven planes in Franco by July Ist, wore "founded on tho convincing testimony of tho experts," and that there is nothing to justify tho assumption that the Liberty motor can be used for high-speed flying. This pronouncement would probably be the most sensational item in the report, for tho Liberty motor has been greatly boomed. Everyone was led to believe that it was the fine flower of tho inventive genius of America's most skilled mechanical inventors, sitting in conference and pooling their brains. It was declared to be by far the best aeroplane motor in the world. And now America knows that it is to be used only for observation, bombing, and training planes, and that until the Liberty motor can be further developed, America's fighting planes will be fitted with English engines. The employment of the Liberty motor in Us present stage will, it is true, relieve the J British and French air services of the necessity of providing any but fast fighting planes, but this will hardly j compensate the Americans for their disappointment. The fact that tho report of the Senate Committeo, composed of course, of politicians, substantiated practically every charge made against Mr Baker's administration of the aircraft programme, was possibly the reason why the President asked a Judge of the Supreme Court to go into the whole matter.

Colonel Roosevelt a few weeks ago, in tho course of a public speech, made one remark which American statesmen would do well to bear in mind. "It's the way we shoot," he said, "and not the way we shout, that counts in tnis war." The Colonel has done somu shouting in liis time, but no one can accuse him of being only a talker.