A QUESTION FOR THE CITIZENS.

Free Lance, Volume XVI, Issue 876, 20 April 1917, Page 8

A QUESTION FOR THE CITIZENS.

Loyalty or Disloyalty? confess we are greatly disapl*.-.*■.■ pointed—we had almost written "disgusted"—with the curious and' de- ■ piorable apathy displayed by the daily press of Wellington with regard to what is a very serious ' menace to the city. We refer to the possibility of Red Fed. anti-conscription disloyalist majority on the new City Council.- The "Post," as usual, • says soft > nothings while "sitting : the • .rail," and , the "Times" takes refuge in silence. We had hoped for better ■things from the"dominion," but in the one and only article—and that a skimpy, totally inadequate effusion—which it has yet published on the subject of the municipal elections., the danger of the friends of the "go a slow" policy- —the champions of those who defy the law—capturing a majority of the new Council, is merely hinted at. It is high time the daily papers performed their honest and bounden duty by warning the citizens against a stupid apathy with regard to the coming_ election, which may quite, probably, result in several: members of the Red Fed, ticket being returned. ■"'.-"■ «• ■. ■ * - ■» ■-. »' ■' . What-is the real issue to be settled on April 25th next? It has_ been stated with a frankness that approaches audacity by the various candidates and by Mr. P. C. Webb, M.P. It is whether the vacant seats on the Council shall or shall not be filled by men pledged to : do all in their power to bring about the repeal of the Military Service Act. That is to say in plain English that they desire to see no more Reinforcements sent from this country, and that so far : as; they are. concerned they are indifferent as to whether these fairlands are under British or German rule. There is no extravagance or unfairness in this reasoning. Those who

are not with us are against us. . Men. who would fain- bring about a return, to the exploded voluntary system —'to which, when it was in existence, they gave no assistance —are actually, if not ostensibly, helping the foes of their country and the British Empire. «■■ - ■' -. ■ ■ a « Again, several of these so-called Labour Party's candidates have in the past been identified with industrial disturbances —to use a very mild term —which brought a severe loss upon the country. They stand as the selected candidates of an organisation which represents all the mischief-making element in the counti'y. Can such men be trusted with the government of the city's affairs ? Emphatically not. * * * * It is rather to be regretted that the ticket system has been adopted, either by the so-called "Labour" Party or by the Greater Wellington Town Planning and Muncipal Electors' Association. We cordially dislike and distrust the ticket system, under which some men get carried into public positions on the backs of their more capable fellow citizens. Each and every candidate for municipal honours should issue his own programme and address the electors in support of it as an individual, not as a unit in a ticket. There is always a tendency on the part of certain • candidates to assume that they have only to get their names on a ticket in order to be sure of election by a submissive constituency. ■ The ratepayers naturally want to see and hear the men who aspire to represent them in the civic parliament, and the candidates for their suffrages ought to be prepared to go on the platform and convince the public they are worth their salt. ■ » © « » On the present occasion the circumstances are exceptional. The Labour Federation, led by men who are hostile to military conscription, are out with a Labour Ticket to capture the City Council as a step towards their avowed purpose of defeating the National Government, and all loyal and patriotic citizens, who want to see the Empire emerge triumphant, in the present struggle for its existence, are deeply interested in maintaining a solid united front. For that reason a Citizens' Ticket, embracing the names of wellknown citiezns, has been put forward by the Municipal Electors' Association. The men on this ticket stand for law and order and against Red Revolution in all its forms. They 1 are for Patriotism against that Socialism which knows no country and has no higher aim than its own selfish class interests. The Citizens' Ticket represents the people who freely shed their blood and spend their money to defend their hearths and homes against a savage and remorseless foe. The Citizens' Ticket is opposed to the forces that take advantage of a time of national peril to incite the workers to come out on strike and to defy the law, thereby assisting the foreign enemy to overthrow and subjugate the nation to which we belong.