JOHN DUTHIE SCOLDS JOHN BULL. Also Gives King Dick a Piece of His Mind.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 80, 11 January 1902, Page 8

JOHN DUTHIE SCOLDS JOHN BULL. Also Gives King Dick a Piece of His Mind.

IF Mr John Duthie's Scotch lineage were not beyond all doubt we could fix up a pedigree foi him The Irishman who trailed his coat at Donnybrook Fair because he was "blue mowldy for want ay a batm' " would make an excellent type of ancestor Since Mr Duthie retired from the Parliamentary arena, he seems to have been in a political trance But he has come to life at last, and his letter m Monday's "Times" is quite m the old familiar scolding style that used to put the fat in the fire in the House • • • Funny thing about the affair is that Mr Duthie was refused an opportunity of firing off his blunderbuss m the "Post," and so has had to beg that favour from the "Times Just fancy it, John Duthie potting away at J Bull and R J Seddon from the columns of the Ministerial morning journal ' Can such things he, And oveicome us like a summer cloud Without oui special wondet ' • • • And what is it all about ? Oh nothing more than that J D is dissatisfied with J B and R J S , and things in general Can this be the result of holiday fare 1 Anyhow, let us glance at the indictment against poor old John Bull Mr Duthie accuses him of unreadiness, which he says is "the first phase of national decay " If so, John thrives amazingly on national decay, for. from his youth upwards, he has ever been no-, toriously unready for war but, once eng ged with his coat off never yet ready to cry quits until he had thrashed his adversary • *• ♦ Mr Duthie is also highly displeased at the idea of 250.000 men failing to subdue 10,000 Boeis He bitterly says. "History has no parallel for failure with such odds, and the conclusion can scarce be disputed that as a fighting force the British have retrograded Stuff and nonsense ' If the war has served any object at all. it has shown beyond the reach of doubt that the fighting qualities of the British are as sterling and as indomitable as they have ever been The difficulty with the British is not to subdue their enemy, but to discover his whereabouts, and get him to make a stand-up fight of it The Boeis strike from ambush, and skedaddle and hide, and John Bull has just the same kind of contract on hand that Uncle Sam has been carrying on for a very much longer time with the Filipinos, and making no gi eater progress with • • • Of course. John Bull will feel acutely this slating from John Duthie, but he has been getting so many pin-pricks from all sorts of critics of late that a few more or lefes v ill not mattei As for R J Seddon. who drops in for a very liberal share of Mr Duthie's tongue — well, he is well-seasoned to it, and won't mind it a bit Mr Duthie is in his best fault-finding mood An additional thousand men won t have much effect. he says Would an offei of 5000 have pleased the ex - lieutenant of the Opposition bettei ? Then, the idea of announcing the offer of the Contin-

gent at a luncheon to returned troopers — how unfortunate ' Pity, King Dick didn't seek advice from Mr. Duthie as to the proper Wai- Office style of doing these things * *■ * The rest of Mr. Duthie's diatribe is a propos of King Dick's "arrogance' in re Trooper Tasker, and his brusque reminder, in plain English, that the War Office must not snub the colonies He also cavils at the request that the New Zealanders should act as one body in the war We hope Mr Duthie fecK better after letting off so much steam Timid people will rejoice to think the Premier is governing the colony so well that his most unsparing and relentless critic has only this flabby and feeble case to bring before the court of public opinion And, without a doubt if the jury are to be asked for a verdict it will go against John Duthie » • • King Dick knows lih public fai better than any of his opponents, and even to the extent of snubbing the Wai Office over Tiooper Tasker's case, he speaks the mind of New Zealand As foi John Bull. well, he will carry on the war in his own humane fashion — which is widely different from the French and German or Russian, fashion — and Mr Duthie may rest perfectly assured that J B 's fighting strength has not "retrograded" so far but that he will reduce the Boers to subjection and give them the bless. ngs of a truer freedom under the Union Jack than they ever tasted under their own corrupt and tyrannical oligarchy