MR ROSS'S INDIGNANT WAIL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 1012, 2 November 1917, Page 6

MR ROSS'S INDIGNANT WAIL.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—My attention lias boon called to your alleged criticism of a meeting held last Monday night, to arrange for petitions demanding the resignation ol the present Government, You untruthfully refer to that meeting as being a “hole and corner one. The meeting was an Bounced at Mr Semple's public meeting bold on the Sunday evening - , ill., which a very large audience was present. The suggestion to get up such a- petition came, not from the Labour Party, but from members of the audience. There were about' one thousand people present at Semple’s meeting, when it was decided to hold the “hole, and corner meeting.’’ If you have any sense 1 of justice left you oughtto unreservedly withdraw your baseless allegation vnd apologise lor having made it. Might 1 suggest, in a friendly way, that humour is not your role. You tell us . that Messrs Massey and Ward arc still smiling. Let me toil you that this is scarcely the suitable time to smile. Jingo casualty lists are coming in carrying heartfelt misery and suffering’ to thousands of New Zealaiu. home;. The lathers and mothers o! the boys being killed and maimed at. the front, have no cause to smile. Massey is drawing £2 per day from the public purse, while having the audacity to tell the married men of the second division that we cannot afford to provide decent, living conditions for the wives and children of these men while they are fighting in the trenches. '1 Ins week the Government have again given evidence of tin ir patriotism by creating additional salaries lor Ihemselve'-. I am convinced (.hat if the Government appealed I • the country this year. as. -constitutionally, it ought to do, u would he hopelessly defeated. lu the farming districts, whore Masseyism had its stronghold., sedition is now being talked wholesale. '1 he .present Government is keeping the public in the dark about many vital Things which ought, to he known. In short, the Government declares that it . cannot trust the people. Then, in rny opinion, the people cannot.trust the Government. 'lhe.se are a few ol the reasons (hat induced the electors to aileiu the meeting held last Monday evening and decide to get up petitions’ demanding (hat the present (fov’ernmebt resign. Jh conclusion. let. mo draw your attention to. the laci I hat the I arbour Party alone in. New Zenland is bolding its meetings publicly. Ji is die other parties who are holding hole and corner meeting.-:.—-1 am, etc - ., ROD. ROSS. Palmerston North, November 2, 191 1. [ln his attempt to be severe at our expense Mr Rod Ross illustrates the. old saving that a Scotchman has no sense ol humour. His letter, as received by us, contained passages referring to Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward of a grossly ...fensivc character, which, out of regard to the law of libel, we have been compelled to delete If, as our correspondent alleges, “sedition is now being talked wholesale in the farming districts, where Massevism has its stronghold,” it is clearly Mr floss s duty as a good citizen (if be claims to. bo that) to give information to the authorities, because the man who is guilty ol seditions Utterances in time of war is.a traitor to (Jib country and people of New Zealand. The sedition-mongers are easily located: they belong mostly to the one class and we have a shrewd idea that Mr Ross knows where to find them. We see .no reason to amend or modify our criticism of tne, meeting engineered by Mr Ross and bis friends. If they were desirous of obtaining the opinion of ‘the electors ol Palmerston North” they should have given them (be opportunity of attending the meeting bv giving adequate- notice that it was to lie held. Ho far from the Labour Party working in the open, d is notorious ‘ that at every conference convened |,v the organisations claiming to lead and speak for the workers, both (he press (other than the Maori and Worker) and the. public are excluded from their meeting The “other panics” to whom Mr Ross refers, agreed at the commencement ~| the, war to cease all parly orgaidsalion and propaganda work, and in the mam the. eomruu’t has been honourably observed. R is only the so-called Labour 1 arty, represented' by the. section for whom Mr Ross aspires to speak, that continues s campaigns and violates the .sanctity ot In Sabbath bv holding its meetings on the day of rest, and churlishly endeavours to stir up political disaffection ami to cnuin i.«« il„. Government, in Ms ddhcult dmy.l