Traitors Within the Camp

Northland Age, Volume X, Issue 59, 9 May 1941, Page 3

Traitors Within the Camp

J-JUMAN nature is a queer compound, evil and good being mixed up in a confused tangle. We are constantly being surprised to find how much good there is in “bad” people and how much badness there is in “good” people. During the last war it was officially reported that two men, sentenced to long terms of imprisonment for very serious crimes and released to join the fighting fbrces, won the V.C., one of them not only by the display of great bravery but by an act of wholehearted devotion. War does bring out the best as well as the worst in men. The tales, now becoming commonplace, of deeds of quiet heroism performed day after day and night after night in the bombed areas of Britain by men and woman whom no one suspected, who were even unaware themselves, of the reserves of moral strength and nobility within them until they were called upon to display them, is something to set off against the horrors and often sheer beastliness of this war. But there is another side to this. We hear also stories of the looting of bombed dwellings, even by wardens whose duty was to prevent others doing this incredibly mean thing. So serious has this looting grown that magistrates are inflicting very heavy penalties on conviction and even the necessity of shooting looters at sight is being seriously considered. And these looters do not all belong to the criminal classes, among them are “respectable” men whose sense of honesty Was not proof against this temptation. While the great majority of the people of Britain are working hard and suffering cheerfully at the call of their country, while barriers between classes are breaking down and people are realising that all are united in the service of a great cause, there are others, often among those who look upon themselves, and are often looked upon by others as the “best” people, who look upon the calamities that have fallen upon the world as opportunities that they may turn to their own profit. Only the other day the British Government had to make a new War Regulation to prevent a gang of wealthy speculators buying up the sites of bombed buildings in London to hold them for ransom when the time comes to consider re-build-ing. And no doubt these business men were duly indignant at this government interference with private enterprise, that keen eye to seize the main chance, which has done so much to build up British business prosperity. If they had the opportunity of making an honest penny out of their neighbours’ misfortunes why should they not be allowed to take it simply because there is a war on? It is done every day in peace-time as a matter of course, why should war make a difference ? Another manifestation of the same spirit is the large amount of profiteering that is going on in spite of elaborate precautions to prevent it. Britain is at present a beseiged country whose very survival depends on her food supply. Food speculators and food hoarders are thus the worst of traitors. During the Peninsular War the Duke of Wellington, moved to just wrath by the wretched food his troops received from England, expressed an earnest wish to hang a few food contractors. To hang a few food speculators now would be a drastic but quite justifiable punishment for the crime. During March there were 2141 prosecutions under the food control orders, 1994 being successful. Sir Douglas McCraith, chairman of a Food Price Investigation Committee, gives some startling examples of food profiteering. “Speculation is rampart,” he said. “Goods are changing ownership many times like stocks and shares, Without even leaving the warehouse. People who do not render service in distribution are enriching themselves at the expense of the consumer. Prices to the public have risen out of all reasonable proportion and have contributed considerably to the cost of living, with inevitable discontent.” Soup supplied by a manufacturer at 6/6 a dozen passing through the hands of seven speculators and finally retailed at 14 6. Tins of marmalade bought at B.UI each and finally retailed at 3/6. All, of course, in strict accordance with the business ethics of the speculators, who would be virtuously indignant if their conduct was denounced as unpatriotic. Have they not being doing the same things all their lives with full public approval? These people are usually quite incapable of seeing the utter meaness as well as the callous selfishness of their conduct. After all, they are only carrying out our current code of every man for himself and the survival of the fittest in the competitive struggle, which some of our own local politicians conceive the only pattern for progress and a civilised life. Such glaring examples of the

outcome of that jungle code may help to shake them out of their complacency.