RUINING THE COUNTRY.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11682, 21 February 1931, Page 2

RUINING THE COUNTRY.

AUSTRALIAN POL ITJ CAL EXTREMISTS. United Press Assn —By Electric Telegraph —Copyright. SYDNEY. This Day. The Herald, replying to Mr Lang, editorially, says there is nothing in the article complained of which could be interpreted as inciting civil war but it is true that civil war was a possibility arising out of Mr Lang's (policy of repudiation and implied secession and that it is in the minds of many thoughtful people, who fear there is a serums risk thereof it the present Labour Government drives a majority of the populat.on c.f New South Wales to desperation, but if violence comes the Herald says it will not be due to a majority of honest citizens who oppose Air Lang,, but through the exacerbated fury of his own followers who* find them selves duped by Ins premi es aiic! i oiled in their senseless sclfiffi. shortsighted purposes. Just as collision, may be inevitable* on a. railway through diregarding the signals, so the trend of Mr Lang’s policy is moving the people to expressions of alarm and. definite discussions arising out of anxiety. This is a fact, and we do not need to include in the comment extremists -in riven camps who would welcome tremble for opportunities o*f personal aggrandisement, and making political capital at a moment. It is enough to say the fear of grave trouble is in men’s minds because secessions- in history have been the* fruitful cause of domestic- conflict. We refuse to believe the worst will happen it best elements get together and work harmoniously for the State. Brazen promises, unfulfilled and never intended to hg* fulfilled, have* led ns into the slough of despond, in which we are struggling. A reaction thereto promises safety, not in civil war, but in whole-hearted co-operation ,to make* Mr Lang's continued tenure of office impossible. Mr Garden, addressing the A.C.T.U. Congress, declared that neither he nor Air Lang had any faith in Alessrs Scullin' or Theodore or their supporters, who were neither hold nop courageous. The time had come for all workers to rally to the banner which must inevitably strike at the heart of the* existing financial machine*. He felt sure that the present situation was only a. lull before the* storm, which be- of such a nature as to surprise the world. A delegate from Alelhourne exclaimed that a* proclamation of a state of national emergency would on use an uprising of Nationalists, who were* ready with arms and ammunition to defend the capitalist claiss. PRESS COMMENT. SYDNEY. February 19. In the Legislative* Assembly today a Nationalist member, Air Af. L. Jarvie, directed the Premier’s attention to an editorial in the “Sydney Morning Herald,” which stated that if Mr J. T. Lang persists in his mad course* of repudiation, secession and possibly civil war may result. Mr Jarvie asked whether the Premier would take steps to purge the good name of New ! South Wales. Air O. A. Kelly, a Labourite, speaking on the* same* question, asked whether the Premier would consider the d.esiVabilitv of suppressing newspapers which maligned the Government and members of the House. In reply, Mr Lang said that leading articles in a* journal owned by n millionaire (Mr J. A. Fairfax) did not disturb him in the slightest.