THE H.B. TRIBUNE. THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 1913. SOME APT QUOTATIONS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume III, Issue 146, 5 June 1913, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE. THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 1913. SOME APT QUOTATIONS.

“Mr. Allen . . says his statement that the Government intended to have 8000 men ready to despatch to any part of the world for service in the Held had been wrongly understood, because the units of such a force would have to bo volunteers. But it does not occur to us that anybody has over said anything to the eoutrmu.” —“Daily Telegraph," -Ith June. 1913. Nmiiing over does occur to the mind of I'iir cmiLempoi .uu wliiyh il either wishes to suppress or prefers should iie lorgoitet’. Even in purporting to give the substance of Mr. Allen's latest words on the subject of tin expeditionary force it cannot help proverting them, although the actual words as telegraphed appear in its own columns. The habit is too strong to dismiss, even though the risk ci detection is immediate. In the telegraphed report of a journa-1-stic interview in Auckland on Tuesday last Mr. Allen savs :—

“All I proposed was the need oi being ready with war material, equipment, and transport arrangements for sending an expeditionary force if the time ever came when such a force was needed : but so tar as the personnel oi such a force was concerned 1 have always said, absolutely and unmistakably, that such a force must be entirely a voluntary one.” Tins conveys quite a different ininrcssion irom that created by the words put into Mr. Allen’s mouth by the “Telegraph” as quoted at the head of tliis article. With reference to the closing sentence of tiie quotation which we have given irom the “Daily Telegraph.” iis memory must be much .shorter than those of its readers when it leu-gets all that appeared in its own columns, as well as in those of other Opposition journals, by way of ton'inent on the message cabled when Mr. Allen first touched upon the sublet:t after his arrival in England Let us refresh this defective memory. If the “Telegraph” will turn up its own tiles for February lasi it will find in its issue of the sth a reference to the expeditionary toree in which it says, "h su]t Mr. Allen to pose in England as a s u., uf dictator able to say to thus territorial ‘go’ and he goeth, and to that ‘come’ and he cometh. But this sort of thing won’t suit in New Zealand.” This seems to us to leave no alternative but a suggestion cf •>.. m’/e compulsion upon the territorial to render service with the expedtiionaiy force. Fi-oin the ml mate proprietary and cddorml r.-la-tio33 which arc know n to ex<st between the “Napier Telegraph” and its admirable protagonist, the "New Zealand i’liirs,” and lmn the mu- .ml quotations which 1 'tw so fteqtur.tly ami a; p- : ivmy txchange, v.e may fairly ars uae that what has appeared rn the Times' is known to the “Tel -g'-apb.” Here ar? some extracts from Ihq “Timos”:— j Feliruary 4.—The men of our islands will go to war voluntarily, and not as a force compelled under a scheme put upon them in this surprise fashion by a. Minister flushed aith the excitement of his first official visit to London. Not as conscripttcnisis will tin- Ire? men <>! this tree country permit themselves to lie shipped away at the whim of Mr. Allen, or Mr. .Massey, er all of th., so-called “Relorm” party put

together. Mr. Alien's presumptuous scncme, however, cbvioysiy leaves no room for such choice. February 5. —The manhood of New Zealand, no matter how loyal, will not he content to be compulsorily pressed into foreign .service at the dictation of the Hon. James Allen or any other politician seeking limelight and distinction in the Old Countiy. Februury 7. —is this the expression ot a mere hope that voting New Zealand would volunteer in the event of ’ a crisis? Certainly it is not. It proves that his intentions are in the direction of an organised and not a volunteer force. February 7. —But when he speaks as the Defence Minister of N’eyy Zealand. and we are told that he offers the lives ot SIMld oi our young men in foreign service as a prool ol their further loyalty, it is time to demand whether he has spoken with the authority and concurrence oi the Government.

These be very fine words, my masters. and it yvould savour of base ingratitude were they forgotten io the editorial sanctum of the. humble follower of the mighty champion of liberty" who must have ghen so much tune io their "aggregation." The "Times.” and possibly the ’ Tele gi;->>i ' also. subsequently- made some most ungraceful and ungracious at-rmpts at explaining away t‘.<'i’- aitifieially htsteiical outbur.de bv referring to them as being nierelv "sneeulative' ! comments: and ground to some other “speculaiive" '■■ubicct for indignation. Me cannot but. in a purely journalistic w-ty. sinc-erelv sympathise with them j., ’{!■.. poor r-tiirn which their “speculations” arc bringing in. P< -sibh it would be an impertinence t<- '’turgeM limi thev should, if not ('■■timely-. to some small extent, -b.u.-dcn "sru'culathms.” and en-deT.-eu'-. oc'-'-isicpaliv any rate, to get m * mis ,;;d:u'» th -u and let the <■ ,1- m. V I'll smnethiiig in ;’ m i.Viir ■ m even if adverse. criticism.