DISLOYALISTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21645, 16 May 1932, Page 8

DISLOYALISTS

TO TUE EDITOR. Sir. —Recent happenings in Auckland and Wellington should prove to the public and the authorities that we have in our midst an organisation .of disloyalists — men who, under orders from a foreign organisation, are doing their utmost to damage the country in which they live and to take advantage of the difficulties which the Government and people have to face to exploit the miseries of the unemployed for their own ends alone, by “ diverting them into revolutionary channe]s ”_to use the words of Losovsky’s treatise on the subject. There are people in this country wno claim the privileges of British citizenship, and the protection afforded by the Empire, yet who claim to be attached to the Red Flag of internationalism rather than to the Union Jack, who sing a revolutionary song rather than the National Anthem. These are the Communists who are members of the New Zealand section of the Third International, and display the emblem of the Soviet Republic on their newspapers and banners. They may be sincere, and we, of course, recognise the right of every man to hold any opinion he chooses. If they are sincere, what need is there for them to remain in an Empire they so despise? They can leave the British family of nations if they don’t like our flag; they can go to Russia if their preference is for Soviet government. We say let them get out or let us put them out, they have no right to try to prevent the huge majority of citizens, loyal to the Empire, from living peacefully under the flag of their choice. It is not the unemployed, but these disloyalists, who are responsible for the damage done to the property of innocent citizens. No reasonable man out or work belieyes that he can improve his position by breaking the windows of a struggling shopkeeper. Besides these agents for the Third International there are other disloyalists in this Dominion who, while professing to have no truck with Communists, secretly rejoice over the recent disturbances and do their utmost to make things more difficult. These men are preparing to retaliate upon any citizen who shows his gratitude to those who have volunteered to protect property from further destruction, Do these disloyalists seriously argue that property owners have no right to protect their belongings? Or do they wish to leave the door open for more loot? These can be the only excuses for such retaliation, because the temporary constables are not out against the.unemployed or workers but only against wreckers. —We are, etc., N.Z. Welfare League. May 12. X--.