The Star. TUESDAY. MAY 10, 1921 COMBATING REVOLUTIONARIES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 10 May 1921, Page 4

The Star.

TUESDAY. MAY 10, 1921 COMBATING REVOLUTIONARIES.

Delivered every evening by 6 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby. Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley.

The reports from Sydney of great loyalty demonstrations in reply (to the insults to the British flag show that the attitude of,the Sydney people towards £ho Empire is sound, and that, willing as they have been to allow full freedom off speech, they are not willing to submit to outrages against the flag. The Sydney Domain has for many years past been the scene of Sunday afternoon meetings and soap .box orators, but probably there has never before (been such a gathering as that which met on Sunday to show the extremist elemen/fcs, the anti-British agitators, and disloyalists generally, that to the great mass of Australian people the Union Jack is an emiblem honoured and revered for what it represents. A week previously the extreme Socialists had burned a portion of a Union Jack, and this action, following upon the failure of the L'albour City Council of Sydney to fly any flags outside the Town Hall on Anzac Day, had so incensed loyal people, and returned soldiers especially, that great loyalty demonstration..s were organised and carried out -with enthusiasm. The motions passed were important, and it is apparently ,tihe loyalists' (intention to have a general cleansing of the State, for it is clearly stated that tllose who are leading the revolutionary movement are going to be given a much less peaceful time than they have recently enjoyed. Coming as it does at a time when there is much discontent owing to the economic difficulties facing Australia, and when there is an inclination among some people to join the extreme Socialist movement, which is .making; all sorts of absurd promises, the strong 'stand taken in Sydney against disloyalty is of special interest and importance, and one feels that while the loyal^ section of the people (and the [great majority are loyal to the present Constitution) is billing to proclaim its' loyalty and to show that Tt will not tolerate the insults" to the flag and all that it stands for, there is little cause (to fear the result should the revolutionaries at any time decide upon a trial of strength. The action taken by the great crowd against the extremists should be an encouragement to loyalists throughout Australasia, and, no doubt, the revolutionary party -will lose considerable support from many workers who have previously been misled by the term Labour Party. It by no means follows that because a man is a miner or a water^ side worker he should have to belong to a revolutionary organisation, and if enforced membership of a trade union i belonging to a federation is to mean membership of a disloyal anti-British section, then we 'believe that the day will come when such a union will Ibe broken up. There is no denying fhe fact that, whatever gains federations of manual workers both in New Zealand and Australia have won for the unionists- belonging to them, the welfare of the community a« a whole has not been considered. Strikes, with the holding up of transport and goods, have 'brought much hardship to the community as a whole, and on top of that the leaders of the federations have 'become more and more arrogant and insulting towards institutions and traditions which, appeal to every loya;! British citizen. Insults to the nation's fla-g are insulSs to all the people who regard the flag as representing the liberty, justice, and democratic principles of the Empire. Jt is not sur prising therefore that the* loyal people , of Sydney have thought if proper to make the demonstrations which took place on Sunday. Let tis hope" that

they will give effect to th«ir resolutions and clear Australia of the element which has beeH a hi»<irance, and which latterly has (become a menace to the people's welfare and the national safety.