MORE BAD FAITH.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 4607, 11 March 1902, Page 4

MORE BAD FAITH.

The pro-Boers ara the same all the world over. In the obscurity of a colonial “Peace and Humanity Society” they develop the same tactics of misunderstand ing, misrepresentation and ignorance aa they do in the “eclat” of a discussion in the House of Commons. Yesterday we dealt with some extremely impertinent resolutions of the local peace organisation. To-day we have to do with the equally dishonest criticism of a mem her of tho House of Commons who has degraded the name of Liberal by » speech of the most outrageously factious character. Of course, we allude to tho speech of Mr Robertson, K.C., the point •of which, as reported in our columns yesterday morning, was his denunciation of the Government for “grovelling before the colonies.” Now, if these words have any meaning at all, they mean that a powerful coalition of British colonies has imposed their will upon the British Government, against the better judgment of the chiefs of the Cabinet. Therefore the world is asked to join in a hue and cry against the Government for “grovelling before the colonies.” The fact which this dishonest line of criticism ignores Is that the Government took up its position in face of the Boers, without any consultation with the colonies at all. After it had declared for “unconditional surrender, a great outcry was made in Britain by several persons, political leaders and others, who ought to have remained above the arguments to which they descended. Thereupon many colonial representative men made strong protest. None, however, were more strenuous in their protestations than the Premier of New Zealand, and these pro tests were widely upheld by public meet ings and the press. In short, the demonstration against pro-Boerism made by the colonies of Great Britain and in support of the Government was as complete as could possibly be. But it was not a lead given to the Government. On the contrary, it was. an expression of approval given to the Government policy after it had been attacked. To represent the Government, therefore, as grovelling before the colonies on this occasion, is an example of the “suggests falsi.” which itself is little, if anything, removed from deliberate falsehood.

The point is more important than appears. Here is a member of the .Liberal party in the Commons, who has much support from the pro-Boers in and out of Parliament, in a crusade, the object of which is to have the wishes of the great colonies ignored at all hazard. Xt is the fashion of the day to speak of the men of Lord North’s generation as having disgraced themselves by sacrificing the American colonies to their party exigencies. It is, at the same time, a demonstrated fact that the proportion of the Liberal party which is pro-Boer is unpatriotic enough to refuse to hear the views of colonists on a subject on which they have acquired, by the expenditure of blood and treasure, the right to be heard. Not only does it refuse to hear those views, but it makes it a crime on the part of the Government to be in accord with them. And it does this monstrous thing at a time when the relations between the Mother Country and her colonies are impossible of arithmetical definition. Yet that is the moment selected by this “Liberal” K.C. to demand contributions from the colonies, according to cast-iron regulations, towards the cost of war. This expression of “grovellingbefo.ro the colonies” is the newest and the worst version of the old cry of “cub the painter.” We owe it t« a politician who in his factious recklessness closely resembles the men who are responsible for the resolutions of the Wellington Peace Society, men who, to get at their political enemies, make no scruple of sacrificing every interest, no matter how patriotic, that stands in their way. As to the deceptions into which they have plunged people who are unfortunate enough to listen to them, it is unnecessary to speak in detail of that branch of the mischief these factionists have effected. The despair of the misguided ex-President Kruger at the declaration of America’s nop-in-tervention is an eloquent proof of the fact that, but for these unpatriotic people, the war would have been over long ago.