NOTES TO HENRY from The Vag

Maoriland Worker, Volume 9, Issue 349, 16 January 1918, Page 5

NOTES TO HENRY from The Vag

Dear Henry,—lf I were allowed to have anything to say about the war, I should say that things were shaping in a very peculiar way just now. One thing I notice is the fact that the "Windy War Party" is not talking, so wild and woolly as they did the first year. It may be that they have grown used to the tragedy or it may be that they are beginning to get their feet again, as the sailors say. When the first referendum was taken in Australia and the results appeared, nearly very newspaper in New Zealand shrieked itself hoarse howling against the "No's." This time they have taken it very calmly, and one famous Minister has not even whispered anything about the "taint." The cause of this alteration in outlook is not very hard to see. Drunken men and women see double and sometimes more than double. It's a very old story that is told about the man who was arrested for being over-full. He looked very indignant the next morning, and said he was not drunk, and he demanded that the other constable should be called to prove that he wasn't drunk. "What do you say?" said the Magistrate to the prosecuting constable. "That's my case, yer worship; there was only one constable present: I am he." So when the war started many of our friends were sligMly intoxicated, and saw double. Now they are getting over it; they are beginning to see things in their right perspective, and in consequence our friends of the capitalist press are not taken so seriously. There were no hats flung up or kerosene tins kicked about .the night the billboards-'etfplained that we had taken the Holy City. People simply laughed, and asked had we taken it for "Cook's Tours." Personally, I think the Central Powers have shown us another little trick in strategy. From a military point of view, Palestine isn't worth a dump. From a sentimental point of view, it's worth millions. It takes 20 acres to keep a sheep, and a cow simply starves there. But as an object to fight over it's ideal. Right down through the ages the Dubbs have fought and died to get hold of that heap of stones. Well, we have got it now, and, ye gods! we will fight to the last child rather than let the heathens get it back again. And, incidentally, Henry, did you •note that we were allowed to take this useless little spot just when the Russians and Germans were getting together to talk peace? On paper it looks as if we were given this white elephant because when "no annexations" is being discussed, the Central Powers will simply ask: "Will England agree to give Jerusalem back to the Moslems?" Then every Christian on God's earth will vote against it. . . The same thing applies to Samoa. Now, Samoa is hardly worth a tuppenny tart. It consists mostly of hills. What there is Of flat country is fairly good-for cocoanut growing, but otherwise there is-mothiing. at. Samoa worth fighting for. But so long as New Zealand hangs to those islands, so long f will we have to keep a standing army and build a fleet. It wouldn't really matter if the Germans did get hold of it again. "We" own islands all round it, and can cut Samoa out at any time. On the road to San Francisco we have the Suwarrow group; on the road to the canal there are Pitcairn and a lot of others that could be used as a base. „ , , • Then France owns New Caledonia, and we have Fiji, with a protectorate over Holy Tonga; so that Samoa isn't worth all the bother and worry it will cost to hold it. But Bill says: "What we have well hold." . * „• ■ Well, Bill knows what he is talking about. . . He has been Home. He knows just what the owner of "Funny Cuts" wants. And don't forget, Henry, old boy, that the owner of "Funny Cuts is chairman or top dog of the "Round Table" circle, and the "Round Table mob are Imperialist, and they are simply mad to build up an Empire. Empires were never built without bloodshed. . . Empires cannot be maintained without standing armies and navies. Well, Henry, you may be proud to know that you belong to a Dominion. It was part of the scheme planned by the Imperialists. . _ Dominlons-beyond-the-Seas is part of the Imperial gag just now. A Governor-General and a Baronet are also part of the scheme to get us roped into the idea of Empire. You watch all the people in power just now; you read the books being served out to the children at school just now. You read the "Boys Own Paper" and the "Girl's Own Paper, and all the blood-and-thunder penny horribles being sold to the children, and see if they are not all advocating the same thing. . The nation is drifting towards Imperialism, and Imperialism and Democracy are as far asunder as heaven and the place where the other fellow S °You, Henry, and you, Henrietta, must understand what is meant by these two words. It's your shoulders the gun presses on most. , _ It's you that will have to suffer most. If you are content to lift your eyes to the skies and keep singing "Nearer, my God, to Thee," and let the other fellow do .your thinking—well, you 11 soon be knocking at the pearly gates and asking to be shown one of the mansions in the skies. ; It's for you to say, Comrade Dubb. How will you Q

No power on earth can force a man to fight against his will. Y°u. may throw him into jail; yon may even • shoot him. But that is not reinforcing the boys at the front; it is only reinforcing the jails and the cemeteries.—"Weetaalian Worker," * * * * At Hughes' Brisbane Exhibition meeting a returned soldier, who had recently undergone a serious operation at Kangaroo Point Hospital, was violently *psaulted by several ecreaming females. He was kicked, punched and scratched, and badly mauled, because h« advanced to ask a question. This is another gampl*> °f conscription fair. Others are the expulsion of returned soldiers, Messrs. H. ('. Jones, M.L.C A\*-?lls, and others from the Returned Soldiers and Patriots' League' or Conwnibtee because they dared to avow themselves as antiConsoriptioniite.—"The Alert" (Queene-