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Maoriland Worker, Volume 4, Issue 147, 26 November 1913, Page 6

Bost by I*«t, jt lends the mt. WHYTE A MACKAY'S fme-flnrored whisky. Agent-. J Mdlruith- Vfcl-

During these 'rebellions; the IMarinee I arc usually reputed to have remained loyal, if so, in my opinion it constitute* a blot upon the laurels we used u> wear so proudly. So fa.r as my reading the worst that could bo said against us a,e..a body woe .tliat cruriug the trouble we wore r.iil-sitt-ers; though there' appears tote no doubt that some of otir potty officers proved themselves traitors to their class, ac ronny industrial petty -officers are proving themselves traitors to-day. Since that-time we • hare liad many nmtinios on a smaller scale, eorrtetimes gun sight? and similar appliances overboard. Knowing the class distinctions on board a man-'o-war, and the bullying manner of ma.uy navaj" offic*r&> (ilioiigli a. few arc thorough .gentlemen in deed ac well as in Dame), I consider most of these outbreaks have bern fully justified. To mention one which; some of u,s may remember, I. would recall the rising of the.stokers on Portsmouth parade a few.,years, ago. Owing bo some slight trouble he was having, an officer arrogantly commanded these men to go "on the, knee.' To their eternal credit some of the men refused, and one. Stoker Lynch, when given the order individually: "On the knee, you dog," replied: "I will bow the. knee to God, but to no mortal man." The court martial -awarded him tiro years. Wo to-day arc proud of. him as a man, arid ' I venture to say. that you have never . been insulted (by a similar order since that occurrence. And to the men of the 'Pyramus, these Auckland waterside™, whom it was thoogbt possible you might be required to shoot down are guilty of i:o graver crime than realising and trying to put into practise the parable of the Good Samaritan, by coming to the rescue of the Huntly miner, who had been robbedhad first been robbed, and because he dared murmur, was left for dead oh the roadside, for that is exactly what victimisation < is intended io do. The yarns that the daily p-retis hare been giving you are mostly untrue. Certaftaly victimisation is unlawful under the A. AC. Ac-t, but it has fe going on for the post 12 months; end, despite request*, petitions and. demands, we received nothing but sneers until this open v mutiny broke .out. My object in writing this letter is not "to urge upon yon not to but to'toy and give yon a few facts bearing upon the position and, having the example of fhe Pa-rkers and 1 Lyneh's of the past ever before us, and knowing >cur readiness to face death itself when you considered your duty or manhood pointed that way, leimply ask you to do your duty, realising with the poet that. . v ■. . Whether oil the scaffold high Or in the battle's van. The fittest place for man to die . Is where he dies for man.