THE HUN PERIL

Evening Star, Issue 16049, 28 February 1916, Page 1

THE HUN PERIL

LABOR. TROUBLES. [From Ocn Special Correspondent.] WELLINGTON February 25. Mr John Payne, M.P.. who very properly takes a broad and comprehensive view _of his representative duties, extending far beyond tho confines of his own constituency, is-carrying on in the dailv Press and in a little monthly journal of his own a vigorous campaign jigainst what he rails "The Hun Peril," and which, to his mind, is a very real peril indeed. He claims to have collected a vast amount of evidence showing that the Government have been culpably remiss in administering the laws designed for the protectioffof the realm in time of war, and that tho Minister of Defence has actually allowed enemy subjects to get away with the Expeditionary Forces despatched from this country. Tho evidence produced by the member for Grey Lynn, which, of course, does not exhaust his brief, is not always conclusive, but some of it is very striking. It seems that since the commencement of the war 355 enemy subjects have been interned, and that 286 of these still remain as prisoners of war, while 41 have been released on parole. What lias become of the 28 persons unaccounted for the Defence authorities have not yet explained, but at the moment Mr Payne is more concerned about the social standing and financial condition of the 41 released. He implies that it is not the German flax-mill hand and the Austrian gumdigger that have been treated with this special clemency, but enemy subject* who move in good society and operate on comfortable banking accounts. He seems to have made out a good case for inquiry. THE IMPORTERS' RESPONSIBILITY. The patriotic exhibition which is being held hero for the purpose of advertising the merits of British manufactures is attracting a good deal of favorable attention, and the promoters are improving the shining hour by getting prominent men to proclaim from the platform of'the Town Hall the dutv of purchasers in regard to the trade of the Empire. Mr T. M. Wilford was one of the chosen speakers the other night, and, eschewing the repetition of mere platitudes, the member for llutt emphasised with characteristic force and directness a point which his predecessors had missed. Having asked who could stop German trsde, he proceeded, after the appropriate pause, to answer his own question. "If the importers who are running the exhibition want to stop German, trade," he> said, " they have the matter in thoir own hands, and I hope that this exhibition is going to focus public attention upon it. When this war is over, are the importers going to buy and sell a.s traders or as Britishers? Are they going to import and sell German goods, or are they going to be patriotic enough to refuse to handle the foreign articles that return such big profits? The general public cannt.'- answer that question. The women do i,he buying for the homes of Now Zealand, but they cannot distinguish German goods from British goods without the assistance of the. importers. The importers are running this exhibition, and they will run New Zeah.ud trade after the" war. That is why. I .. ;k if they are going to be oafriots' or merely trader.*. If the importers bring the German goods into the country, then th*. public are helpless." Of course, the importers were mainly responsible for tho hold the Germans had got upon New Zealand trade before the Var. and it is now for them, as Mr Wilford said, to apply the remedy. THE RAILWAY WORKERS.

The Minister of Railways and the General Manager appear to be' making light of the discontent among the railway workers, and so far the Prime Minister has not thought it necessary to intervene. The disposition of Mr llerries and his chief .seems to be, indeed, to throw the whole responsibility fgr the prevention of further trouble on to tho broad shoulders of Sir Joseph Ward. When a, deputation from the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants waited upon Mr' Massey and Mr Herries a little time ago. and asked for a definite reply to the men's demand for in creased wages, they were that it "all depended on the Minister of Finance," the implication being, presumably, that if Sir Joseph could find the money the men would get what, they wanted. " Naturally, the deputation did "not regard this as'a very satisfactory answer, and the men themselves are pointing out that the employees in no other branch of the Public I Service have been asked to wait till after I the war for the remedy of their gricv- | ances. Wheth.'r or not the men's demands i are reasonable, it may be for the experts alone to say, but on paper the rates of pay in several of the grades appear extremely low K-hen the nature of the work and the high cost of living are taken into account. It is held hi some quarters that tho railway servants are out, of court in this matter, they having declared last year they would postpone their demand for better wages till after the war ; but at that time, they were assured by the i Prime Minister the cost of living would be kept down, while as a matter of tact it has gone up by leaps and bounds, and now is out cf all proportion to the pay of many of the men. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. Well'iigton is accepting an early session of Parliament as a settled thing, without, it may be said, taking much interest in the matter one way or the other; but Ministers still are politely declining to be drawn into any definite admission. The popular predictiot now is that members will be called together earlier than was at first intended, probably in March instead of in April, and that the Government will try to get sufficient work done to make another session before the usual time in June of next year unnecessary. This would be a very comfortable arrangement for Ministers, and might serve all practical purposes well enough; but it is doubt- , ful if a majority of the members of the i House, who are beginning to realise there ; is little chance of the General Election j being postponed beyond 1917, would be i content to go into recess for a whole year. ; They have a good deal of leeway to make up with their constituents, and being out, : of the public eye for 12 months woutd bo I a serious handicap to them at the polls. i The only thing certain about the position is that it will not be the fault of the rank and file of either parly if the special sesi sion is either short or uninteresting. A J score of members have pledged themselves : to make it as long as the forms of Par- ; liament will allow, and as lively as the j Speaker will permit. They feel 'that last > session, in deference to the wishes of the . party leaders, they allowed many opporj tunities to "score" to pass by, and that next session, they will be free, to "make good " by adopting a, more assertive attitude. If they continue in this frame' of mind _ the proceedings will be short only in a, limited colloquial sense.