ONE OF THE FOULEST PIEGES OF ELECTIONEERING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 84, 9 April 1919, Page 5

ONE OF THE FOULEST PIEGES OF ELECTIONEERING

IN PUBLICS IN NEW ' ZEALAND, ‘ (By Telegraph.—Special to Mail.) WELLINGTON. April 9. Those in touch with public affairs in New Zealand,, for many . years affirm that,never in the history of New Zealand have such disreputable tactics been utilised as those employed by the liquor trade in its fight against Prohibition, The Ur. Valin,tine ‘ fake proclamation was. bad enough,, but decent citizens will regard tho ( TradeV acb and leaflet on Bolshevism M even more contemptible ■ In this (connection.- th;is > moi|ningn Ulominion contains a leading article strongly censuring the Trade for , the methods it has employed, and evert elector will agree with its oondeiimation of the Trades methods. The editorial! reads,: —hj, “A FOUL SUGGESTION.

“The exposure mad© at the public meeting .in the Town Hall last even- . jug of the publication of. a leaflet in which. 1 , it is sought to associate . connected with the Prohibition .move- ; merit in. New Zealand with the worst excesses in Russia, is calculated to do as' much injury to the cause in which the leaflet was issued as ajiiy -bugle i undent in. the present campaign; inp leaflet itself is one of the foulee pieces of electioneering it has been our ill-fortune to come across in public affairs in Now Zealand. It bluntly : and' grossly states the reported conditions under which the debauching j of women is permitted i» Russia under | -Bolshevist vale, and implies _ that tins I was' the outcome of the deliberate fit- : forts of the Bolsheviks to sow discontent -bv engineering prohibition. Jhe misrep- ) ivsenfation of the facts of the situation lin Russia does not concern us. . Ac* cord in (r to all the evidence available the Bolsheviks had as little to do with the Tsar’s edict prohibiting the sale of liquor, as did the writer of the leaflet himself What we do protest against, and what we are sure every decent-minded citizen, whether b e bo for or against the Liquor Trade win protest agaim-st, is the foul slander that , that in New Zealand, those who _ are ! working in the cause of Prohibition nave in view as their goal, iJolshcvusm, j the debauching of women and all that I Anarchy stand® for, that Prohibition is merely a preliminary step to tw vile ends. That there is no doubt that j this suggestion is made may be gathered I from the dosing sentences of the document in question, which read as fob

lows:— , . , , “ ‘The Bolsheviks havp their agents at work inf New Zeajund. They are following the tactics that proved succoss- ' fi\l tn Russia,. Prohibition first, 1 Anarchy afterwards, if you don t wish 1 to'help them, vote contiu|£nce, I If this class of things is to be toipr- ! atecl in public controversy without protest then decent men and women may j well hesitate to take a share .ihJhose public activities, which it is ,to the .interests of all sections of the community to encourage. One does not .need o hold the same opinions as the iroiiim- ( tionists to appreciate the merit of their motives 1 .” *