CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12546, 13 April 1904, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT. TO THE EDITOB. ■ ' ' rV Sir,—l read With much interest your lead- "'* ing article in Monday's paper commenting - so ably upon the British Aliens Immigration , Bill, and it is. with->regret; that I agree with SlfPf you that that Bill, has reference in a great " I measure to the immigration of Jews into thft United Kingdom. It gave me great pleasure ~'• || to note the kindly sympathy manifested towards the ""Zionist movement" in that ar- " ' ticle. Perhaps you would allow me to make a'few reflections on the present position of' the " Zionist movement." The, question is' ft compound one. While Jews : pray daily tor the return to Zion, their prayer is tradi- I tional, and has no reference to political «• Zionism," such as we know it to-day in on* respect. From the true point of view "political Zionism" is the true Zionism, because the prophets were greater political Zionists than we are to-day. It is a well- ' established fact that pious rabbis have kept the Jews in a miserably blind condition for 2000 years. They have been feeding them upon the Messianic hope which the Talmud contradicts in many ways. Under the present conditions wo dare not say wo are going to get back Palestine. We will have to take that concession of land which the Powers may grant us. To-day we have no more right to Palestine than to East Africa. And let it be said that the Ottoman Empire would grant us a concession of land: what guarantee have we got? Under the present conditions wo trust to no nations but England and America. The international Zionist meeting was attended by Jews from ail parts of the civilised world, its purpose being to consider how best to relieve the misery of their oppressed brethren, principally situated in Russia, Roumania, and Galicia, who had suffered so much, both morally and materially from anti-Semitism. The means suggested for the accomplishment of this great aim is; the establishment of a legally assured home for those of the race who cannot or will not assimilate with the people of the countries in which they at present dwell. At the same time there is no desire or intention to offend • the sentiments—i eligious or otherwise- of any Jew of any opinions. lam familiar with the conditions, nature, and character of the Jew in all ports ox the world, and I am convinced . that there is no remedy but "Zionism ' foi the disease of anti-Semitism The objects of Zionism" are so broadly " humanitarian that Jew and Christian alike can assist in the attainment of them. The - cry is one for help—a cry that the AngloSaxon race has never been. backward in responding to —and rho help needed is for the purpose of rescuing vast numbers of human beings from conditions which can only, be described as being of barbaric and Ravage cruelty. A massacre thousands of mile-' away may appeal but little to those who dwell in happy security in English territory; but the effort of the mind necessary to appreciate the conditions that can bring such an event about is a duty on every person who acknowI ledges allegiance to humanitarian religions; ! most of all then to those who call them- | selves Christians or Jews. And, finally, Zionism is the ready-made cure for the evils alleged to be brought about by the immigration or the destitute Jew into England. 'Establish a home for this Jew in another part of the world, and there will no longer be an inrush into English ports of the Jew fleeing from bis oppressors. This I say, though I believe that this immigration into England of this people of brains can, in the end, work nothing but good for a country such as Eng. land.—l am, etc., .A. Green. ° VACCINATION. • - TO THE EDITOR.; ' % Sir,—The cable from London, which tells us that in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, 45 cases of smallpox have occurred, of which 35 were unvaceinated people, perhaps unintentionally produces the impression that the risk for non-vaccinated people is 350 per cent. as. great as that undergone by vaccinated ones. And yet such a conclusion would be correct only under the supposition that the number of vaccinated and unvaccinated people in Hebden Bridge is exactly alike. If there -is a greatei number of unvaccinated ones the result might be quite different, might eve a show against vaccination. Suppose that only , 10 per cent, of the people were vaccinated, would not the fact that as many as 22 per cent, of the eases among only 10 per cent, of the inhabitants, the vaccinated people, i prove that vaccination is a danger rather than a protection '! And suppose even that T the vaccinated counted as high as 22 per cent of the population, would not their risk y „ have proved to be the same as the risk of •' ' the unvaccinated ? That' vaccination has certain dangers is denied by nobody, I gup- '• pose. What, we want to know is whether the danger of infection by the epidemic is so much greater in the ease of non-vaccination as to make the lesser evil preferable. Such a proof is not supplied by the figures of the . cablegram.— am, etc.," ' * Michael Fltjescheih. PREFERENTIAL TARIFF AND ABOLITION OF PROTECTIVE DUTIES. TO THE EDITOR. « Sir,—-I mot an old friend • lately whom I ' will call "Tinkler." Now Tinkler" is one, of Auckland's most • respeoted citizens, who has spent the bast pari of his life in Auckland, and who took an active part in get- » ' ting protective, duties imposed, so that men might be induced to risk erecting factories for the purpose of starting local industries with the hope that they would give the farm-1 - , ers a market for their produce in the colony. ' . The scheme, although seemingly feasible at the time, proved an utter failure, as the few thousand manufacturers could not possibly consume all the farmers produced, and had it not been for the refrigerator and cream separator, ' which brought prosperity to the farmers, they would long ere this have insisted upon the repeal of all protective duties, which contributed to the profits. of the few factory owners and their employees at the expense of the goldminers, gumdiggers and farmers, without adequate return." But Tinkler" still thinks protective V dutie3 are the correct thing, so when we met he accosted me as follows: —"Hullo, 'Farmer's Boy/ I was thinking of you the other night when reading a splendid article in the Nineteenth Century on the preferential tariff." ' " Was it. in favour of it ?" I queried. ; ' "Certainly," be said. • " Weil, then," I asked, "are you ignorant of the fact that I was the first man in the colony to advocate the preferential tariff with Britain, and my letter was published in the New Zealand Herald of April 17. 1901, and that was prior to either Messrs. Chamberlain or Sedcion expressing themi selves in its favour." ■ " What! you, a freetrader, expressing yourself in favour of the preferential tariff?" " Not. a free, but a fair, trader," I replied. "Tree trade within the Empire as near as we eau get to it and protection from without." "Oh. then," said "Tinkler," "you would destroy our infant industries ?" " Certainly _ not; neither will Ibe a party ■ ■' 1 to bolstering them up at the expense of my country friends and people like myself Come to think of it, 'Mr. Tinkler,' it is a bit) of impudence on your part to expect our farmers to permit protective duties to remain in force a day longer than they can help, so that your protected trades unionists . may charge them double what they could beimported for under a fair trade tariff. Do; you forget that our farmers and farm la-." Ixmrera are competing in London with their produce against all the low-price labour of the world. Siberia (with wages at 5d per day) sent in the summer of 1901 1,080,0001b of butter weekly—remember, weeklyto England, and during the same summer th» representative of the Deering Agricultural Manufacturing Company, America, sold 1500 reapers and binders in Siberia. Just imagine those machines passing up the street, each drawn by a pair of horses, and how long would it take them to pass us a? we stand here. Only remember that these machines could have reaped our last year's whea-' har- / vest in less than a day, and yet, in the face of all this, and of the further fact that, according to Mr. Fitzherbert in the Argentine, where wages are only 10s per week, one man has between 9000 and 10,000 cows milking on ■ his various sections, you have the astounding impertinence to expect our farmers to assist you and your protected trades unionists by retaining protective duties. If you are not utterly bereft of shame you would go now and hide your head." "I have no time for further discussion now," said " Mr. Tinkler," " but J will meet) you again soon." So saying he left me to reflect upon the .fact that I was the first in New Zealand to advocate the- preferential ! tariff, the repeal of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, and the substitution of a fair trade tariff for . the presentiniquitous protective tariff.— am, etc., A Farmer's Bo ] Auckland, March 10, 1904. CONDENSED CORRESPONDENCE. An American" writing on the pay of clerks in New Zealand says:—"The Americans, the best business men in the world, hav* recognised long ago that it is better policy to pay a clerk what he is worth than to screw him down to tho last possible penny." ) ===========