The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1918. WELLINGTON CENTRAL

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10085, 25 September 1918, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1918. WELLINGTON CENTRAL

The process of nomination has given us definitely the number of candidates for the suffrage of the electors of Wellington Central. It is therefore time, for the electors to make up their minds as to what choice will be best for all the interests concerned. In this connection, the first question naturally is what is the most important of all these interests. Beyond question the most important is the interest of the nations engaged in the war. It is the interest of freedom in the world, for which the Republics of France and America, the British Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdoms of Belgium, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece are fighting, for which the Kingdom of Roumania is enduring slavery, for which the Republic of Portugal has entered into the war. These Powers have moved in self-defence, against the most unprincipled aggression in the history of the world. What wrongs and outrages that aggression has inflicted on the countries of its occupation very clearly indicate what wrongs and outrages it is prepared to inflict on the countries it hopes to conquer. Massacres, outrages, rapines, slavery, breach of the laws of nations and of humanity masked by lying accusations of provocation, systematic breach of the plighted and signed word, are the imminent undeniable present menace. Trade domination, crushing indemnities, losses of territory, extinction of freedom, are in the huge category of the undeniable menace of the future. Between the two stands the offer of a hypocritical peace with falsehood as 'its base and grim determination to build up a. Middle Europe tyranny as the mainspring. The danger is appalling. It nearly overwhelmed ’ us in 1914. and it nearly overwhelmed us last March. It is now constrained by reverses in the field to make a snarling offer of palpably dishonest peace. Every law of mankind, including the safety of our peoples, which is the supreme law, calls for a brave perseverance in the fight to the utter destruction of the monster. The candidate who stands for obedience to this law is the candidate defending our most important and vital interest. Beside this interest none other matters. The National Govern, mat was formed hv common consent of parties to concentrate the force and will of the Dominion in this defence. It has done that work on the whole well. It is doing it now. It has nominated one of the candidates on the list. As' the candidate standing for the most important issue not of onr time only, but of all historic time, Mr Hildreth has been indicated by the Government. The duty of all electors who stand for the freedom of mankind, for the integrity of the Empire, for the safety of tho Dominion, is clear. In this crisis nothing else matters in comparison. The Liberals in the constituency have especially to hear in mind that the nomination of tho Government candidate is part of tho conditions of the political truce set up for tho express purpose of winning tho war. Among the candidates are men who declare tho making of that truco a crime. Under normal conditions such a truco would bo a crime. But under the abnormal condition of this awful and

most dangerous war which threatens our very existence, the refusal to make the truce would have been the crime. It follows that the denunciation of this truce is a crime, beyond the reach of palliation. Liberals who are true to Democracy and to mankind, as well as to Liberalism, will see their duty clear enough. That they, or any of them, should vote for any other than the candidate nominated under , the conditions of the truce they have honourably accepted as vitally necessary, is unthinkable. The cause of human freedom and the danger to themselves and to their own. and to their future, do not appeal to them unsupported. These vital facts have behind them all the interests of Liberalism. Seats held by Liberals w r ere covenanted, so far as any covenant can reach, to remain Liberal; seats held hv Reformers were covenanted to remain Reform. This agreement has been observed loyally throughout the bv-elections of the truce period. Liberals can vote for Mr Hildreth in., the full assurance that they will not be disturbed by their political opponents. Labour is asked to oppose the return of the Liberal candidate. We have disposed in these columns of the idea that Labour and Liberalism are opposed to each other, simply by showing that all their interests lie together and their tendencies are similar. The vast majority of Labour in the Dominion is, w-e feel sure, like the vast majority of Labour in Britain and in the United States, alive to the paramount necessity for winning the war. Labour in Britain and the United States, placing the war before everything else in the world, suspended the destructive, binding features of the protective system established by its courage, shrewdness, and resolution in the past. All Labour which places the war in its true perspective among the ©vents of the day can, without violation of its conscience, or fear of injury to its status, follow the grand British and American examples. Moreover, by voting for the Liberal candidate Labour prepares the ground for definite achievement. During the remainder of the life of this Parliament, one thing alone matters, in the political field, and that thing stands alone alive, unlike the political issues of animation suspended by the truce. This issue is proportional representation, and if Labour and Liberalism join together behind it, that issue will supply the electoral machinery, for the lack of which the power of the franchise has been strangely wasted in the past. Here is something to he attempted and done. That is practical politics, promising an, epoch-making, abiding result. Separate action, on the other hand, can of its very nature lead to nothing more solid than haying the moon.