STICKLERS FOR COURTESY

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 137, 6 December 1930, Page 8

STICKLERS FOR COURTESY

Judging by their behaviour to the Mayor one would not class the Christchurch unemployed as sticklers for courtesy; but evidently some of them are. Councillor Beanland, worried by their persistence, told a group of them to "go to —." So they went to the Mayor—to demand an apology. There was no misunderstanding of Councillor Beanland's instruction. Councillor Beanland did not accompany it with any promise to use his influence—as with a friend—if it were followed. Nor did he state specifically that the prospects in the place mentioned were brighter than in Christchurch, or that Communists would be found in a majority there. But it was not his failure in this respect that offended his hearers. It was the discourtesy of his terms. The Mayor might suggest that some of them at some time had prpbably used similar language; but this excuse was not good enough. They were as shocked as the Bishop of Rum-ti-foo when he returned to his savage converts. Some sailors whom he did not know, Had landed there not long ago And taught them "bother" also "blow." (Of wickedness the germs.) No need to use a casuist's pen. To prove that they were merchantmen. No sailor of the Royal N. "Would use such awful terms. It is amusing: but one is given to wondering all the same whether such men are really anxious to see the unemployment trouble lessened when they can magnify so trivial a grievance. .