UNITY OF THE NATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16456, 5 February 1917, Page 7

UNITY OF THE NATION.

LABOUR MEMBER'S VIEWS NEEDS OF OUR SOLDIERS. "BACKERS NOT BARRACKERS." The importance of the preservation of national unity at the present time was referred to by Mr. W. A. Veitch, M.P. for Wanganui, and a Labour representative, at the funcheon given to the Parliamentary visitors at Devonport on Saturday. Any man, said Mr. Veitcli, who did anything at a time like the present to disturb national unity was an enemy to the State. (Loud applause.) The reason why the Germans had sued for peace was that they were unable to keep their people together. National unity was the essence of the whole fight. If we stood together we could not lose; but the more we quarrelled the better it would be for our enemies. He was sorry that there were men in New Zealand who cared nothing for King or country or national aspirations. There were men who said that they would not go to the war. Men who were protected by the State should be prepared to fieht when their time came, isome people said that only volunteers should be sent to the front, but was it only the volunteer who enjoyed the protection of the State? There were men who said that they just as soon would live under the German as under the British flag. A man who said that was a fool, and did not know what he was talking about. (Hear, hear.) They could not allow people to talk like that. (Applause.) Our soldiers did not need barrackers; they needed backers and men who were fit to fight must go whether they wanted to go or not. He had been threatened last year that if he supported compulsory service all sorts of things would happen to him, but surely if one man was willing to risk his life at the front another man should not hesitate to risk his position in doing what he believed to be right. (Hear, hear.) Whatever their party difference it was their first duty to hold the nation together and to keep their old national ideals to the front. By doing this they would help to win the war, and thus bring about a higher and truer civilisation than ever before existed. (Load applause and cheers | Mr. T. A. H. Field, M.P. for Nelson, said that Mr. Veitch's fine speech did him great credit as a Labour 'member, j He was sure that Mr. Veitch's sentiments were shared by more than three-fourths of the Labour people of the Dominion. (Hear, hear.)