MUST BE STOPPED

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 22, 26 January 1940, Page 8

MUST BE STOPPED

DISLOYALTY TO THE

EMPIRE

ATTACK ON MISCHIEVOUS PROPAGANDA

MINISTER'S WARNING

A strong indictment of those responsible for the dissemination of subversive propaganda was made in an address last night by the Attorney-Gen-eral .(the Hon. H. G. R. Mason), who made it clear that while the Government did not object to legitimate comment or criticism about public affairs, it would not be tolerant of utterances that were designed to distract, divide, or disturb the people in the prosecution of the stern task to which they had set themselves. "No professed antagonism to Nazidom will excuse attempts to destroy or weaken the economic organisation that is vital to a sustained war effort," said Mr. Mason.

"I have recently been examining certain newspaper and magazine articles, pamphlets, and reports of speeches that have been submitted to me by responsible officers who regard them as subversive or seditious in character," said Mr. Mason. "I have no hesitation in saying that, in my opinion, some of the matter so submitted justifies the charge made against it." Mr. Mason sketched the series of grave international changes, crises, and struggles which had occurred during the past twenty-five years, and said that these had led to controversy which could not but reveal or create conflicting loyalties, often passionately held. Some people in New Zealand, as no doubt elsewhere in the Empire, had seen in the history of the present British Government nothing but a record of blunders, while others were convinced that the picture was one of at least honest and mainly competent handling of a series of difficult and dangerous situations. It all depended on the point of view. "And then, with many of these differences still fresh and still unreconciled, we found ourselves once more at war. It was inevitable that many among us should ask, -'Why should this thing be? How is it that after so great and costly a victory which is still fresh in our minds, we should once again be fighting for our lives?' "The point to which I am leading is this. The Government felt that it was hardly to be expected that the national machine could get into top war gear in a moment. It believed that not instantaneously could everyone realise that whatever view he may have held in the past about British policy, there was now only one thing for loyal men to do, to stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of the Commonwealth. INSTINCT OF SOLIDARITY. "The . Government knew that this realisation would come without forcing it. It relied on the good sense and strong instinct of solidarity of our people to consolidate opinion in support of a truly worthy war effort, But the Government is now convinced that ample time for the adjustment of reasonable and loyal minds to the new realities has been allowed. "In every society there are people who cannot or w!2 Sot enter into genuine spiritual communion with their fellows. The high purposes that inspire their countrymen never touch or quicken them. From the common en- 7 deavour they hold themselves stubbornly aloof. Why this should be so we need not pause to inquire. Suffice it to say that it is the nature of some to believe themselves" wiser than all others, to belittle what others know to be great, to deride what others revere, and always to try to have it both ways, by sharing the benefit, but never the burden, of national sacrifice. "But there is one thing that we require of dissenters—that they do not seek to hinder the purpose that they refuse to help. We are entitled to demand—and we do demand—that they abstain from propaganda that.is hostile to the national cause. "To allege that Britain and France are engaged in a capitalistic war, and that there is nothing to pick and choose between them and Germany so far as merits are concerned, is manifestly subversive. In plainer English, it is nonsensical, mischievous, and disloyal. What such persons mean, or what I imagine they mean, is that the masses in Britain and France are fighting for the special advantage of a class, by whom they have been more or less tricked into war. "To suggest that men like the Prime Minister of Great Britain have led the British 'Empire into war upon inadequate consideration or for the protection of sectional interests is a specific example of subversive propaganda These men may be fallible-who isnt? —but they' are high-minded Englishmen devoted to the welfare, as they see it. of all their countrymen "It is also subversive and seditious to suggest, as I observe certain persons hfve been doing that there is a duty laid on workers for social betterment to fight a war on two fronts-one against Hitlerism, the other against the economic system of the country. I do not propose to waste many words on this mischievous absurdity, butJwiH say this: that no professed antagonism to Nazidom will excuse attempts to destroy or weaken the economic organisation that is vital to a sustained war effort. To sap the industrial cohesion of our country is to help the dictators and no fine phrases will alter th «I was recently amazed to see in a masazine published in this country in Sgument which may be briefly stated S Let us keep out of the struggle If Britain wins without us, well and good; if she loses, it will make uo difference to us. Frankly I am at a loss for words to describe such a plea. Omitting any references to the meanness of it, let me ask this question. Who in his senses imagines that if Britain succumbs we shall survive? Do recent happenings in Bohemia, Moravia, and Poland, to say nothing of China, teach no lesson and convey no warning? PREVIOUS WARNINGS. "Let me repeat what both the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, and the Minister of Education, Mr. Fraser, both of them life-long haters of war and militarism, have in recent speeches made very clear—that, if Britain falls, so do we. And if that happens our Centennial marks the close of freedom and selfgovernment for people of our race in these islands. If Britain's enemies drag her down, we are among the spoils for the victors and become hewers of wood and drawers of water for a contemptuous and merciless conqueror. What a fate for the country that bred and still breeds Anzacs!

"But it is not my purpose to refute the type of matter that I have described as seditious and subversive. The loyal and sensible, who constitute the great part of our people, stand in no need of such refutation, and others will be insensible to it. My intention is only to indicate the kind of propaganda that must stop. In no part of

nganui. the British Commonwealth is freedom more cherished than in New Zealand —freedom of thought and expression, of work and worship. Nowhere is there a truer spirit of toleration for all shades and forms of honest opinion than here. We are now fighting to retain for ourselves, and to retrieve for others who have lost them, these priceless possessions. "The Government nnd people of this country will not tolerate that freedom be perverted to impede the cause of freedom. The Government is tolerant, and will remain tolerant of all legitimate comment or criticism on public affairs from whatever quarter it come. But it will not be tolerant of utterances or counsellings that are designed to distract, divide, or disturb the people of this country in their prosecution of the stern task to which they have set themselves. i

"Let no one make any mistake. The Government knows that it is the will of the people that throughout this war New Zealand shall do all that her history and the character and aspirations of her people demand of her. The Government will see to it that full effect is given to that will. The law which has been made by the people is adequate to protect the cause which the people have freely chosen. In accordance with the ancient custom of our race, the law will be enforced, without fear and without favour."