POLITICAL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 11 April 1912, Page 6

POLITICAL.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —That versatile and nimble individual, who garbed in becoming anonymity, still tries to square the circle, and who still claims his high-sounding title of "Open-minded," is not yet satisfied. He has been kicked all round the compass, and yearns for more; it were a pity to disappoint him. This gcntl- man's swan-song is reminiscent in me portion of a line or two of Mark Antony's great oration; for "Open-minded writes: "1 am suited neither by taste, vocabulary, preference, nor aptitude for a contest," and ShakeSpere's "Antony" says : "For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, action, nor utterance, nor the power ot speech, to stir men's blocd" ; wnich constitutes a remarkable coincidence. To obviate misunderstanding on the part of "Open-minded," I beg to inform him here and now that tne preceding sentence is ironical; so that he needs to waste no more of his abundance of time nor of yonr valuable space, Mr. Editor, in attacking neither the facts and the truth which. I have the honour to defend, nor myself, with it as a pretext. Sir. your correspondent is very well aware that no contribution to a public iourna! can be held to be responsible for editorial or other foreign footnotes ; and I repeat that your correspondent signing withdraw the statement contained in his letter published 30th March, wherein he writes: "The plea, (put forward by this Moutere correspondent in his first letter) that the member for Nelson had voted contrary to proirfire, has now been abandoned, etc." By refusing to do so .wtan asked, your correspondent has branded himself as a churl, and worse; and by deliberately stealing part of asentence from its context and using it to cap his dishonest argument, he has appealed, to the honest anil openminded. electors of Nelson in Mr. Atmore's cause! Sir,- I have never written to you that ".Mr. Atmcr e voted contrary to promise," nor yet that "he has broken any pledges"; and I must, ask you to kindly confirm my assertion. Neither did I "quote my own letter incorrectly, both in word and punctuation" ; and I must ask you, Sir, to confirm this also. The fault in any case was trivial, and did not affect the sense nor the position, and such must occur occasionally in the rush of work- in any newspaper office. And now, Sir, these two grievances removed, what of honesty and of "openmindedness" remains in all your correspondent's many and painful effusions? Commencing in a laboured and careful letter to justify Mr. Atmore's astounding political attitude, and writing shamelessly (or should we say naively ?) from the view-point of a mere Government henchman, whilst signing as, and loudly proclaiming himself to he "Open-mind-ed," he has tried to down that which he has known to be a fact and the truth. He has travelled in a circle, and has been kicked harder and harder as he has proceeded, until now he stands at the point from whence he set out on his adventures, and cuts a sore and a very sorry figure. Hit anonymity must be a source of great com fort to him at present. Before we leave this persevering, but misguided, person to point -his moral and adorn the tale ; perhaps it is well not to lose sight of one fleeting aspect of his conduct. A correspondent, over the initials "J.B.'' voluntarily .gives hionest and relevant evidence in a perfectly courteous manner; him, our "Open-minded" hero condemns. It is, to be cruel, but I fear me, nought availeth else; and "if it were done. . . - then 'twere well. It were done quickiy." You, Sir, will remember that after my sentence, from which the" ingenuous "Open-minded" stole the opening line and tried dishonestly to palm the latter oft as the whole sentence, I wrote"-i wonder, and I wonder, was "Open-mind-ed" always of this opinion; or has he recently come to it, since Mr. Atmore showed himself to be a Government follower!" , "Open-minded" gibes, at "J. 8." ano dubs the latter's honest testimony "gossip." Well, Sir, gossip is sometimes enlightening, sometimes enlivening, and sometimes worthless. Here's some more "gossip" : "Open-minded" did not deny the suggestion of my wondernrent quoted above; we must, therefore, assume that lie was not ont of "Mr. Atmore £ friends'* at last election —assume, fur ther, "that he, being so keen a- Government follower, supported other candidate or candidates than Mr. Atmore, —even further assume that ihe opposed Mr. Atmore's candidature. Why? Becaust he believed, perhaps, that Mr. Atmori to be in opposition to the Government . "Open-minded" disclose his identity, and- dfeny this if he dare! That is perhaps the hardest kick in the sorest place that this perambulating apologist has so far received; but he has been looking fo. it; and'at that, I think, we can leave him and return to Mr. Atmore. If Mr. Atmore and his political position can only be justified and defended by the means and meannesses of such as "Openminded," then the sooner Nelson elect:a new Parliamentary representative, the better for the district and for the country. Although he did not openly pledge himseli to do so, Mr. Atmore's political profes sions were such that the average elector would logically infer that he would vote against the Government; Mr. Atmore received Opposition support, and he secured election thereby. These are- facts, and even clever scribes such as "Open-minded'' cannot assai. them, because they are true. The ex cuse put forward by Sir. Atmore in an interview, that the Opposition (or Reform) Party had not voted against the huge borrowing operations of the Government is idle: one must assume that Mr. Atmore was conversant of this when h' was seeking election; in any case, even prior, ignorance on his part would not excuse his 'action in voting for coi. tinuance of this and of the other eviL he condemned; and moreover, an op position in a continual minority of fion 20 odd to 40 odd in a house of 80, wapowerless to seriously oppose the financial operations, however reckless and unwise of a government which forced thes; operations through a tired house, b\ '""Legislation by Exhaustion" process at ihe tail ends of long sessions. M; Atmore will need much better reason, than any he has yet given to indue; many of the honest and unbiassed electors who last voted for him to again support his candidature. Thanking you for your valuable spao . I am, etc., G. L. TAC'ON. (Mr. Tacon d : d not definitely state i" 1 his letter that Mr. Atmore had broker election pledges, but at the same time, that is the inference we obtained frcm reading that portion of his letter, which was deleted. From Mr. Tacon's remark? above it seems he did not desire to giv< that impression. He certainly did pet state'it definitely. So far as the oth " matters are concerned one or two sma! 1 p-inter*« errors occurred in a former letter of Mr -Tacon's, and these doubt l ' - account for the difference. —Ed. N.E.M.)