WHO ARE THE BOLSHEVISTS?

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXVII, Issue LXXVII, 3 June 1919, Page 4

WHO ARE THE BOLSHEVISTS?

REPLY TO "A LLOYD-GEORGEtTE"

(To the Editor.) Sir,—lt is a pleasure to"argue with thi s correspondent. i _(1) in has first letter he charged mo' with suppressing certain essential facts • m his second he candidly admits tha+ he had oniy discovered these facts in line- : lish hies, and questions wnether tliev i appeared at all m the local press. This ' j is an honesty, all too rare in correspond- ' | ents, which shows that he is fonder of i ; truth than or contention. His admis- ; sion, however, was not necessary to sup-! port my assertion that I 'had neither I suppressed nor omitted anything essen- >■ tiai to the justice of my argument. I JJurthw diiterences seem to b e a matter! of literary criticism and' the proper use of words. L j (2) To sheet home to me th c makino-' of a statement that I had denied na£ ing, namely, that Mr George was an • ally or ducal mmeowners," h 6 quotes my words that Mr tjeoige was a ''tool" i ot profiteers. Any dictionary will! show that one may b e a '-tool" without being an "ally." Mr George is, and has been for some years, not a voluntary ally but a tool of Lord Northcliffe my countryman, who is th* de facto ruler or Juigiand, and who is bringing Ene™Ud *£ h nel With wM^ of scorpion! May Mr George soon realise what apSmaw" *** °f ~«** £ (3) After quoting several statements of mine condemnatory of M* George he concludes: "If suCi statements were : true the Premier would be immediately 'i driven outof office." To I reply- ; The electors at all the by-elections, j have demanded, with astounding and ! portentious majorities, tha t , he should ■ be driven out of office. ( isit "1 mail^ taln that the Dean has' skilfully formulated "a grave indictment against a man who, has saved the Empue trom the Germans. !j This is very '■ loose . writing, and will not bear the! mos t elementary critical analysis ii have not condemned Mr George for sav-1 ing us from the Germans, though I have never heard he had made such a claim ; 1 have condemned hf s iniquitous threat . to the miners and 'his foolish economio I | statement. I could', of course", condemn' him on many another score, ifl I wished to ' I go beyond the subject matTer of this de- ! bate, v.g., for "the scraps of paper" which strew hi s floor, and which the waste-paper basket is unable to hold ] \our correspondent, though he has' •knghsih files at his disposal does not ; seem to know that Phil p, sober, is now vehemently denouncing Mr George as a pro-German. (5) My statement that the aid of j bod was not invoked at the opening of , the Peace Congress was not "based upon j the tact that ecclesiastics were not ad- | mittod to-the Congress." Ecclesiastics j are nw officially present when the Gov- . ernors Address and Speaker's prayer i invoke the aid of God at the opening- of each session of our New Zealand Parliament. j (6) He argues that President Wil- , son and Mr George were most llikely to j invoke God's aid; but there is a sound axiom in logic and in law, which says: Contra factum nullum est argumen- *' Aa^ainst fac£ tsiere is n» arguent. And the fac t is (commented upon by the Christian press of the world) , that neither they nor any other did in! I voko the aad of God or even mentionI -tvs holy name. (J) Yoiu- correspondent writes that the people-of England are not disposed i to consider the land of the Sinn Feiner jan economic paradise and model." For imy part I have never been able to jguage W b. a t the p eop ) 6 of England ; would be likely to think for any 24 hours at a stretch. Philip gets drunk ■ so easily and so often, and so often and ' so easily sobers up. But the fact is that while your correspondent was writing this characteristically Englishman's s^n- ■ twice, Mr McPherson," Chief Secretary ' for Ireland, was declaring'in the Hoifee of Commons that ''Ireland \va s the most t prosperous country in the Empire " And is it not a fact also that i n spite ot the arrogance of some of her sons England is more indebted to Ireland for her toed than to any other foreign1 i country except one ? • ; I would, in conclusion, advise yovr' correspondpnt not to write too much about patriotism. There are two brands ot it. A cynic of the last cen j tury, dehmng the spurious brand,! .wrote: "A truo patriot is a vain boaster ' ?„?£ a£ ar ' und a gOod hate^ aJI ™ ' ?£ i- ih. at, the cyme was right about the liar will be seen from the bitter reS hurl ed b^ &<> great war corres-i pondent Mr Edmund Chandler, against the wicked patriotism that falsified every cable ho sent to England from i Mesopotamia. Spurious patriotism fostI ers and does not check the evil of Bolshevism. !

To do ' A Lloyd-Georgeif c" justice, he has made no profession of lov c for the toiler, and so he escapes the charge of Hypocrisy. In this he is unlike. "63 " who first would expatriate the discontented, then would hold out a hand to succor them, and changing his mind once more, would' proclaim tha+ loyalty to them must go down before loyalty to the State. This i s to show tha+ the hand he hela out for a litfcl© while had only a heart, of cruelty behind it. This wo, is to foster and 'not check Bolshei vism.—l am, etc., P. J. POWER, !