THE BOLSHEVIK MENACE

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXVII, Issue LXXVII, 30 May 1919, Page 4

THE BOLSHEVIK MENACE

To the Editor,

Sir, —I am pleased to know that P. J. Power admits that my Roland is as good as his Oliver, but he put Ms oar in my iboat, and in rowing parlance "caught -a crab." He has deviated a long way from the subject referred to in my first letter and entered on a recondite phase of things, in iyhich his findings are arrived at through fallacious weighing up on ex parte premises, as so clearly and judicially shown in the letter of "A Lloyd Georgeite." Prominence was given to & sentence in my last letter dealing with loyalty and disloyalty in connection with the toilers. * Hfe description of that assertion as a blatantly imonoral principle 'will doubtless be accorded its true value by the people in this community, to whom I look to reprove me if I am in the wrong. Now let us go b»ek to the root of this spreading tree. In my .first letter I istated that those who' are not satisfied with the constitutional method of

remta^ng grlevano?9 should be invited ' to leave tor other cj^eSj as they were ' a menace t» the peac^ of the Domin- j ion. If the Government tad been firm and done its duty this is" what ishould I have happened. What would have taken place in this .Dominion if special provision had not been made under the War Regulations to isuppre^r lawless leanings t and deal with disloyalty one shudders' to thinki And yet we have specious pleading for lawlessness", which can only (be regarded as an apology for fhe ends justifying the ' means. The divine right of Kings and j Kaisers has no bearing on this discus- ! sion. We can mention our beloved King and Queen as shining examples of iwhat stands for numanity and hu- { man sympathies in going among the J poor and distressed, as we have seen ' recounted in the papers from time to time, and it will ibe conceded iby all ; loyal people that .no one is more anxious for the welfare of their «übjecta than themselves. The pernicious doctrine that it is a crime to obey manifestly unjust laws leaves an open- ■. ing for misguided but otherwise de-, cent .men like Casement to come to ! grief. What solitary individual is to! decide whether a law is just or unjust when it possibly may have ibeen enacted to meet some misdeed of which he may be guilty? I recommend P. J. Power to read the- remarks of the memiber (Labor) for Wanganui on cur-' rent politics. It jwill be admitted by all. unbiassed people that Mr Veitchj is one of ihe finest advocates of! genuine iLabor in the Dominion, and ] one of the imost level-headed. Good-i ness 'knows, the franchise in New Zea-i land is of- the widest and most com- j prehensive nature, and if the majority , in ihe country do not approve of the i aotions of their representatives the J matter of a change rest« entirely in ] their hands at the proper -time.—l am, \ etc., "63." % * J.