Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1917. PLENARY POWERS OF GOVERNMENT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 10115, 24 October 1917, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1917. PLENARY POWERS OF GOVERNMENT.

The powers with which the Government will be invested as a result of the passing of tlic War Legislation Bill are, as was pointed out yesterday, far reaching in their scope and effect. But, as Mr Herdman said in the House of Representatives last evening, should the war continue for another year or two, the State may have to enter into all sorts of business engagements and enterprises. ft may have to do that in the interests of national efficiency. The drain upon the manhood of the country, caused by the war, is such that the Government may bo compelled to eliminate all ■’non-essential” businesses and occupations and to transfer the workers so engaged to other businesses that have been classed as ‘•essential” and "most essential.” In that event it will he the duty of the Government to organise the nation on lines that may, and probably will, occasion very considerable dislocation of the existing order of things, and a certain amount oi heartburning. Yet it is very necessary that the Government should ] kiss ess such powers and that the people of this country should loyally support them in their endeavours to prosecute the war until, as the British Prime Minister put it, in his great Albert Hall meeting,

"a decision has been reached dethroning brute force for ever, so that our children may not be condemned to terrors which even the most vivid imagination does not portray.” Such a decision is certainly not obtainable at present. because, as Mr Lloyd George says, "Germany will only make peace on terms which enable her to benefit by the present war,” and that "would be an encouragement for any buccaneering empire in the future to repeat the experiment.” THM NEED FOR UNITED ACTION. The need for united action in ibis fourth year of the war is more clamant than ever, and must continue to overshadow all other considerations. It is because we must have a durable peace, eliminating the power of Germany to "will war” when and how she pleases that the Allies, including America and President Wilson, have turned down the Rope’s peace proposals, however wellintentioned tlie latter may have been. “The main questions of the war are (as Mr Lloyd George reminds us) not territorial adjustments or indemnifies, but j pre-eminently the question of the de- | struction of a false idea which has intimidated and enslaved Europe, or iwould have done so if the enemy had ] been triumphant this year.” Until that j purpose has been achieved wo must conit inuo the struggle, however arduous it I may prove, regardless of the loss entailed, and of the sorrows and afflictions,

hardships, privations and trials the further prosecution of the war may bring in its train. To yive in, and make peace now, or in the immediate future, would be simply to gain a reprieve Irom those further sacrifices which must be made il we are to {min a stable peace, and secure immunity from attack and possible subjugation, if not annihilation, within a very few years from now. Attempts have been, are being, and will continue to lie made, to sow the seeds of dissension amongst us. There are people, even in New Zealand who talk indignantly of the so-called “PrussianIsm” which they allege has been introduced by the Government, who chafe under the restrictions imposed by the War Regulations, and who would, ii they dared, head a revolt against them. They are disloyal in their thoughts, and where it is safe to he so, disloyal in their speech also. Such people are ever ready to fan ihe smouldering embers of discontent, which they help to create, into a fierce lianie that would, it uncheckis], endanger the salety of the country by bringing about a relaxation of those efforts which must he put forth, if we are to do our part in helping to win the war.

MR LLOYD GEORGE’S WARNING

.Mr Lloyd George bids us “beware of people trying to sow dissension,” and t<> “look out for Roloism in all shapes forms.” The advice is sound, because the peril exists. The enemy is not only

“attempting to divide the nations and to ret one ally against another,” but he is, still more insidiously endeavouring to divide each nation against itself. Germany still has her agents amongst us, unrecognised and unsuspected, and wo have ample evidence that in France and in Russia, Jn Italy and in Greece, in the United Kingdom, and in the United States, in Canada, and in Australia, other of her agents are at work. In each of these countries Germany’s “Hidden Hand” is working through unsuspected channels and in devious ways. The duty of every patriotically minded citizen in this country is, therefore, plain. Lor the war period at least, there should he no talk of party, and no attempt to set class against class, or to stir up strife and thus cause internal troubles. Even the Social Democrats should fall into line, and, instead of talking, as they do, about the alleged “Prussianisation” of the country, by the Government, loyally accept the conditions that have been forced upon us. It is nntortiuiate that (as Mr J. M. Robertson, M.P., puts it in his pamphlet, "The Future of Militarism”) “when leaders ,0i parties agree to a patriotic truce, any halt-dozen of their normal adherents can see to it that domestic strife shall continue. You have only to say that you pub country or the people above party, and yon are self-absolved. You can then proceed, in war time, to asperse at will the majority of your countryman, the party yon most dislike, its leaders, its policy,” and so on. We have people, both in the New Zealand Parliament and out of it, who are given to that sort ol thing, and, although the gentleman quoted, whose sympathies are mainly with the “Union of Democratic Control.” applies his remarks more against the supporters of conscription, they have their application. and a very pertinent one, to the people in this country who share Ids sympathies, and who would like to make the path of the Government as thorny as possible.