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Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume IV, Issue 241, 25 September 1914, Page 4

The Auckland "Star’’ is well known as one of the most out-and-out journalistic supporters of the Liberal Party in the Dominion. It may .therefore, serve to allay the frenzy of its Napier fellow advocate if we quote what it has to say about the determination to hold the general election in the ordinary course. It says:—“The decision of the Pre inier is that the General Elections are to be held at. the usual time at the close of the year, and the country and the political parties must make their arrangements accordingly. As regarris the proposal for the postponement of the elections for some little time, it must be admitted that the arguments in its. favour are not so strong as when it was first mooted a month ago. If the posi tion of affairs at Home and in Europe weie now as critical as during the first week of the war, or if the Allies had not gained such decisive successes that, the ultimate result of the struggle is now practi cally assured, we think that Parliament would probably have decided to defer the elections. But as things are there are many good reasons for conducting the country’s business in the ordinary way precisely as if no great international conflict were raging. Protected by England’s supreme naval strength, the Dominion’s oversea trade is practically undisturbed, its finances are not unduly straitened, and so far as material. circumstances go there seems to be no adequate reason why our political and national life should not now proceed on its appointed lines.”

Our Northern contemporary then goes on to discuss the aiguments adduced against the Ministry’s decision. It, however, finds no strength in any except those which suggest the possible' imprudence of bringing about a change of Government at such a critical juncture in the affairs of the Empire, and the possible misuse that might be made, not only by our enemies, but. by the extreme pacificist party in Britain also, of anything that could lie misconstrued into an indication of disapproval of a colonial Government that lias given so marked manifestations of its loyalty to the Mother Country. Quoting thus from an Opposition organ, it is only fair to add that it closes its article by saying that it is for the electors to decide whether the Imperial disadvantages thus advanced aic not outweighed by local party considerations. While on the subject, we may also mention that a Southern contemporary points out that in Victoria, where the State elections fall to be held about the same time as our own, the question of a postponement has not even been mooted. It is quite evident that some of our Liberal friends are inak ing a great fuss over very little.

Although we believe one other member of our House of Represent atives is said to be of far-back German extraction, we fancy that Mr. A. M. Myers, member for Auckland South, is the only one born of parents who are of immediate German nationality. It is therefore a marked tribute to the capacity of the AngloSaxon race to absorb those of alien blood to find that, in the little breeze that occurred the other day between Mr. Herdman and Mr. Russell in the House, Mr. Myers was the foremost in deprecating anything which might be remotely fonstrued. even by the most sensitive. into a suggestion of sympathy with Germany’s world - wide ambitions. Mr. Myers has, of course, exceptional reasons for blessing' the good fortune that brought him to light under the British liag. More especially has he grounds for gratitude to the long uninterrupted rule of democratic Liberalism that enabled his business predecessor and himself to build up one of the greatest and most profitable monopolies in the Dominion, for he probably controls the exclusive trade <>£ more hotels than does any otlnt man in New Zealand. Rut apart from a full ap

predation of these purely material considerations, there can be no doubt that his sympathies are wholly and sincerely British, and that his birth and upbringing under the shadow'of the Union Jack have effectively eliminated any of the influences that might have operated had his parents made any but a British colony the home of their adoption. No better proof than Mr. Myer’s attitude in connection with the inci dent we have mentioned, and his activity in connection with the preparation and dispatch of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, could be forthcoming of the beneficence of British rule, which gives equal opportunity to all nationalities that care to place themselves under it. It is scarcely possible to conceive of any one born of British parents develpping as true an affection for the arbitrary and discriminating domination of an insolent militarism imposed by the Prussian Eagle. And Mr. Myers is only one of the many loyal subjects of Great Britain that are but one generation away from the Fatherland.