" MISTAKEN LENIENCY:'

Evening Post, Volume LXIII, Issue 97, 24 April 1902, Page 5

" MISTAKEN LENIENCY:'

(Sydney Daily Telegraph, 15tli April.) " Tell the ivwg norn me that . . * lam content he muiU reigu ; but I'll 1)9 protector over iiim. " 'JLluu> was tiie iuo^^ uud. almost tiie pijiabe, iv -nlucii Jiir. b,udon ruaiuUiaus u< cuuoul jjaUwiii^o o\v.j Itnperittl Ministers aud. the (Joium<iuac* - in-Uiuei of the Army auticipauni uy u.j, earlier reformer — to whom, it may Li added, iWx. Ciiitinbttiaiu lias bceu compared by.ms pieacat <Jhiei, Lord ball ■• bury, .aud viiose surname was (Juae. ILi cubic daily xwgs vuii reporib oi opinion. , generally adveue, expressed by iur. fcx-u* don on Imperial policy aud conduct, tv that the ouiooker irom out-iiue tiie jimpire ought well imagine that the liilusu Government, like tne monarch, reignovf but did not govern, except under tho masterly protection of Mr. Seddou. To such it certainly would not occur, on the printed facts, that Air. Seddon's wa» not even a representative Australasian.' voice. It has transpired during the last few days that Mr. Seddon's views on the conduct of tho Enipire generally are not to be kept for colonial eais. England has been' given due- warning that the New Zealand Premier not only disapproves of the '"mistaken leniency" which has been shown toward the Boers, but that "while in England he will have a good deal. to say on the subject." There U nothing strikingly novel in the prospect. Mr. Seddon generally does "have a good deal to say." Nor is there anything new in the prophesied purport of his lecture to the English people. For did not Cade threaten to "make it ielony to drink small beer?" And does not Mr. Seddon's promise to flagellate the English for drinking small beer by. showing a foolish leuiency to their enemies, therefore merely indicate that history is about to repeat itself as is its wontf ,But if this matter of "mistaken leniency 1 ' is to be taken seriously, as it is to be hoped the world does not gen- [ erally take Mr. Seddon, it is as well to say that the New Zealand Premier represents at the outmost the people of his colony, and perhaps not them. Tho New Zealanders may be in favour of some such scheme as that .which Mr. Seddon propounded the other day, of giving five thousand Maoris under native leaders license to roam over the Transvaal and see to it that " their enemies did not hurt them a. second time/ bao in the absence of reliable testimony to that uncomplimentary effect it may be doubted whether they do. It is truo that, there have been in all British quarters of the world sharp differences of opinion on the question of whether or nob the British were worldly-wise to care for their enemies', wives and children in concentration camps. But so far aa the enemies themselves are concerned, tb«barbaric suggestion -that they should have been treated with less consideration than has been shown to them has not been advanced with any noticeable representativeuees or emphasis. On the contrary, that British methods have been as humane as 'the conditions of warfare Allow Ji&B been generally cited with pride. And properly so. War itself, in its unavoidable regular incidence, is bilier enough, without dealing with the enemy as .though the,, quarrel were a personal instead of -a national one. Moreover, tho result that is expected from war, as good often comes .of evil, is that after it the parties' .who but now were at deathgripß will live- together peaceably, and, as time heals the grievances of tho past, happily. It is to this end, quite apart from the mere sentiments of humanity that operate at the moment to the benefit of & captured enemy, that civilised men do all they can to soften the consequences of war. The enlightened aim is a double one, that is to Bay: it is to indulge ordinary human feeling by treating the incapacitated antagonist as kindly as is compatible with keeping him a non-combatant, and to promote in the future that good feeling which is indispensable unless war aivl racial hatred are to go on until ore side is exterminated or for ever. Thn* is all >the -British have done, so for as in knowsi. What alternative course Mr. Seddon would propose to this "mistaken leniency" we do not know, except that there is a clear inference that he is in favour of harsher methods. It must be plainly understood that that is exclusively a New Zealand suggestion. Like most of Mr. Seddon's other various .and vivid performances in the role of principal Australasian talker, it is purely voluntary, and has neither Australian authority nor sympathy.