Patea & Waverley Press MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1921. A BRIGHTER OUTLOOK.

Patea Mail, Volume XLV, 21 February 1921, Page 2

Patea & Waverley Press MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1921. A BRIGHTER OUTLOOK.

Lovers of peace and harmony, and those who wish to see their country prosper, can take heart of grace at the sudden turn for the better that events have taken in the industrial and political world. In South Africa the Imperialists have won a glorious victory, whilst both in Australia and New Zealand the fomenters of discontent are beginning to realise that they have an impossible task before them in trying to hurst up the Empire. Now that the war is over, and money that was being circulated in the most lavish manner is becoming scarcer, employers and workers alike are beginning to realise that the old-time prosperity can only be maintained by the people agreeing to produce more and to curtail all extravagant expenditure. The idiotic notion that the present happy and prosperous state of affairs could be made still happier and more prosperous by the workers downing tools and making impossible demands upon their employers has been completely dispelled, as the Australian ship stewards in particular have found to their cost. There is very little doubt that the workers have at length realised that those who advised them to take extreme measures in the hope of bettering their condition are their enemies and the enemies of England as well. That Germany has been at work in connection with the industrial troubles at Home there can be very little doubt. Mr. Joseph Hocking is very emphatic on the question. In one of his latest hooks, “In the Sweat of Thy Brow,” he has the following remarkable passage : One of the characters, a German, says; “Germany is not beaten; never can be beaten. In one way or another we will have England under our heel. AVhat Bolshevism has done in Russia, Bolshevism can do in England, only in another way. The only hope of Germany is to create chaos in England. If we can only get the English workpeople to refuse to work we arc saved. The great hope of Germany is to set capital against Labour in England, to ferment quarrels between master and men, to make men demand impossible things. Germany’s salvation is in England’s idleness. If avc can only cause the workpeople of England to revolt against the present state of Society and against constitutional government, avc Avill yet be masters. Propagandists have been in England fermenting strife for years. They have been soAving ihe seeds of discontent, of revolution. of anarchy. Therein is Germany’s hope. Government by strike, government by direct action. That will destroy England’s greatness. She has Avon this Avar by the unitA r of her people. She will lose all the advantages of her victory by disunity.’’ The Avords are remarkable in that they shoAv exactly Avhat Germany has been doing. It is only too obvious that if Germany can induce 'the British people to engage in

internal strife, Germany can snap her fingers in Britain’s face when the conditions of the Peace Treaty are sought to be enforced. The time is ripe for the workers to endeavour to frustrate the enemy’s designs by striving to produce more and to be contented with fewer luxuries, the employers for their part seeing that the Avorkers are paid every shilling they are entitled to. If this is done, then there need be no fear for tilde future. And judging by the trend of recent events it would appear that this is exactly the course that is now being pursued. The time has arrived when the people will have to see that their welfare is not impeded through the maehinations of the enemy in their midst. Before long there will have to be something in the nature of a “drafting” of the people, Avith those Avho are in favour of constitutional government on the one hand and those avlio have no consideration for the country on the other. The latter Avill, perhaps, then see that they are in a hopeless minority, and Avill, let us hope, betake themselves to a country like 'Russia, Avhere their reA’olutionary ideas can have full P^y.