The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 1915. COALITION

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9095, 14 July 1915, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 1915. COALITION

Coalition, we are being taught every day by its votaries, is like Liberty, inasmuch. as strange things are done in its name. That was the tragic remark of one of the most illustrious victims of the “Terror,” and it is the criticism of today in this remote part of the world. It is indeed true that some stra-ngo things are being done in the name of this much-discussed coalition. One need not go further for them than the lucubrations of our two local contemporaries. We "will take, first, those of our friend the squatters’ organ. Our friend yesterday morning was severely melancholy because of the misbehaviour of the Opposition, with regard to the proposal made to its leaders for a coalition, the' generous, patriotic, eminently fair proposal, which had been scorned in really the most unprincipled manner. The refusal was too much for the organ. Standing like a limp, wet rag before its weeping readers it lamented that the Opposition had refused to “sink party for the common good,” had refused to “enter into a workable agreement,” had displayed in the present tremendous crisis an “unworthy spirit,” had descended to “petty 'scheming,” hod degraded itself by frustrating that “complete unity of effort on the part of political leaders” which is alone able to save this Dominion from being murdered in its bed by German burglars I But what was there to support this list of criminal miracles? Surprising as it may be, it is, nevertheless, true that the whole indictment under this superstructure rested on the fact that the Opposition had refused the first proposal made for a coalition, and might refuse the second. Now, of the first, the squatters’ organ, in the scant remnant of breath left after the above lamentations said, ‘ 1 Six to three is not a fair proportion in a National Ministry under any circumstances.” “Any circumstances'' is good. The particular circumstances happen to be that the two parties are about equal; that the leader of the Opposition was offered a portfolio at present of decidedly minor importance; and as far as the war‘is concerned, oT no importance at all; that the other two seats offered were to be filled not by Liberal nomination, bat by the “Eeform” Prime Minister; that tiie Liberal party would have been bound to accept every detail of a policy arranged by a Cabinet in which its chiefs were dominated by two to one. The proposal thus set out was really the meanest, the most unfair, the most sinister,'the most absolutely unworthy possible; the greatest of tricks and the worst of cheats. The squatters’ organ meant all that when it, said that the proposal was not equitable. Then it went on to declare that “in view of the large amount of extra work thrown on Ministers as the result of the war, six to five would not be unreasonable.” This, we presume, is the plea for the acceptance of the second proposal. Now, the first essential preliminary condition of political coalition is confidence- But what confidence can there be for number two proposal after the offer of number one? When you have fenced off an enemy striking with a dagger in Lis right hand, are you likely to want to embrace him when he conies at you with a sword in his loft? The evening journal is equally melancholy, ,but more adroit. It began its lamentation of yesterday by condemning proposal number one, and then .it went on to denounce the Opposition for divulging the nature of that precious offer, concluding by laying the blame for the failure of the coalition proposal on the “grave initial blunders of both sides.” As an example of artistic rail-striding this would be perfectly delicious if it were not so brazen-faced. The rail-strider strives to . save face, however, by a qualification of his condemnation of the Opposition. The Opposition ought not to have published the terms of the offer “before exhausting every private means of promoting a reasonable settlement." No doubt this is of the ABO of the great profession of railstriding, as it is of the sublime art of the hole-and-corner. The two go well in double harness, for without secrcsy neither can prosper, and a dim religious light is the nearest approach to the light of day that either can afford. And is not patriotism a religion with us just now ? Hence the rail-strider gives us a homily on the horrors of war by which we _ are threatened, working the patriotic trumpet for all it is worth, giving us a superior view of the appalling pro-

spect shown by tho squatters’ organ of being murdered in our beds* The picture is framed by ’’the flower of our manhood,” and the “Empire’s Firing Line,” it is varnished by Albuera and Quebec. Napoleon, and Wellington, and the Dardanelles; it is glazed by a “German, fleet in the straits,” and by tho “lives of young heroes laid down in vain,” and it makes almost religious the dim light of the railsitting journal in which it is hung. All this rhodomontade is beside the mark, just as much as the political wrangling which our virtuous contemporaries are at such pains to denounce in tho language of hypocrisy and to practice by laments in religious lights. The Empire’s condition is not in our hands. Tho final victory of right over might does not depend on the coalition 01 parties in New Zealand, any more than it depends on tho issue of any conflict between them- Our main concern is to perform our small share of the Imperial duty; to “do our little Kit.” It happens that some difficulties have arisen in the doing. They ai’e complicated, and they are serious. The proper way to deal with them is to faco them squarely and come to honest judgment on the merits. No coalitions are required for this. There is no excuse for laying all sense of responsibility to sleep. The time has come for ansivering things, not shovelling them behind a dead wall of coalition. Instead of Albuem let us talk of Treutham; for Napoleon give us the chief of the Medical Department of the array as a subject of practical arrangement ; for the heroic deaths of the flower of our youth in battle, lot us substitute the prosaic but useful question of preventing them from dying before they get to the firing-line- The great fact is that the first proposal for a “National Government” would have done nothing at all to remedy the evils we suffer or to prevent similar evils to qome. The question is will any coalition do it? The point is that whatever the way may be, the evil must be tackled promptly, vigorously and with good understanding.