THE GERMAN, THE JUGO AND THE R.S.A.

NZ Truth, Issue 742, 6 September 1919, Page 3

THE GERMAN, THE JUGO AND THE R.S.A.

Dear 'Truth," — Since the R.S.A. haw ! swallowed the Jugo camel so often and so comfortably, its noisy gulping-s ; jver one small gnat of a German pro- : Jossor Income rather ridiculous. 0 I ■ was surprised to learn that Professor i von Zedletz had been displaced. lam i still more surprised there should be i any opposition to his ' re-instatement. j Formerly, the Professor passed for a I human being like? the rest of us. He was even conceded to be more gentle, amiable and unassuming- than the average straddling biped. Touching national affairs that of itself counts for nothing of course, but add the fact that the Professor married a New Zealand girl, made New Zealand his home and served our country faithfully for J about 15 years. The pedagogue can, I I suppose, claim to be something of a I public benefaotor, If only the Pro- i feasor had thought to style himself a | "friendly" alien! In that guise he I could have robbed and betrayed us to his heart's content. But instead he ! came to offer his best gifts m honest return for his living. As you know, dear "Truth," I yield to none as a jingo and fire-eater, a Baptist or a Bolshevik, a lion or a sucking dove as I the occasion demands — Saint Paul was j another bloke like that — but I hold ' unshakeably that a man's personal conduct, his honor, his soul — what you will — transcends m importance everything like the mere earthly accident of his nationality; and it is .r.ot to our credit that men who have adorned our public service shoulw' be humbled and affronted because of a state of affairs m which they had no responsibility, j If that isn't the spirit St barbarism what is? I am less concerned for the few men so persecuted than for our own good name as a civilized folk. So much for the German gnat. Take now the Jugo Slav camel with his multiple humps. Unlike the Professor these men came bringing gifts neither of mind nor matter. They came merely to exploit and lay waste our country, and to their rapacity there was no limit. Yet the war was not seized upon as a pretext to deprive them of their means of livelihood. On the contrary they were given greater scope to glut their greed. So sacred a thingis property m the eyes of the Alien Commissioner, that, though m many cases it had be.en announced as a coiTisequence of British . boys :. beingcalled to • the front, exemption was readily granted to those who happened to be m largo possession of what morally speaking was nothing- but plunder. When the ordinary Jugo diggers were called from the fields they had to dispose of their whares and other things somehow, and there being no demand there naturally fRl 1 Into the fat fists of the few Jugo plute-lets whom Mr. Cullen saw fit to leave at large. Should the absent Jugos ever return to the g-umflekls t.hey will have, to pay a fancy figure for the much deteriorated shanties ■fvhich they were force! to part witiv fora few bob. Even now, the returned British soldier when he inquires the price of any of thes.^ • abandonee abodes gets such 'a ■ shook lie has to turn away and fix himself up a sack shelter: and while he. chews over tlie Jugo Slavs leavings to gain m mere

subsistence he has the inspiring spectacle of seeing, the hundreds of pounds worth of gum, dug while he tvas away and held till now for a high price, being shipped off before his very eyes by the jubilant Jugos who have collared everything worth having. At great expense and difficulty the Government established a gum-buying department to help the digger when the gum kings of Auckland closed their doors and left him ~o starve at the outbreak of war. Now that the market is open again the fcstate department should have proved equal to eliminating- all private competition. Instead they are allowing themselves to be caught napping, for already Gorman and Jug'o Slav buyers have beon round the fields buying up everything at advanced prices. As usual lam obliged to appeal to "Truth" once more on this subject. Our day-lies are so vociferous and voluble m claimingliberty for the foreigners? m Plume that I cannot hope to get a word In wedge-ways on the subject of the enslavement of British soldiers to the foreigners on the New Zealand gumfields. To approach the secretary of the Auckland R.S.A. would be more vain still. He immediately assumes the air of the great being bored by the. importunities of the lowly. Others have tried. Besides it ia so much more showy to bark after a public man than tackle a real problem. True, at a general meeting- a resolution was carried against all aliens, the seconder complaining that it was not strong enough. With the most engaging innocence he counselled me to write something really strong and hot on the subject — me, if you please, who has kindled conflagrations m more waste paper baskets than any other classical controversialist since the Phoenicians first found the alphabet. Was he not just a trifle too hot. — Yours, etc. "BLACK WATCH." North Auckland.