The Rangitikei Advocate TWO EDITIONS DAILY. SATURDAY, MAY 31, 1919

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11847, 31 May 1919, Page 4

The Rangitikei Advocate TWO EDITIONS DAILY. SATURDAY, MAY 31, 1919

THERE seems to be little reason t( doubt that the Returned Sold iers’ Associatioi is on the way t( serious cleavage, if not to extinction, The voting on the motion to turn il into a political association, although it was defeated, had a sufficient number of supporters to indicate that a very large minority oi the soldiers are in favour of the change. The declaration of the mover, too, that, though unsuccess fal, he would again introduce it at a more favourable opportunity shows that his side is seriously bent on carrying the proposal through. A failurejwill probably involve a split, while success will speedily work extinction. The agitation for the establishment of a political basis might have been anticipated at the very birth of the body. The extremely intemperate language indulged in at meetings on the part of many who expected to be called up for service during the later stages of the war, and the manner in which that was applauded, plainly indicated the existence of an extremist section to which a little military service would, in their opinion, confer a title to anything in the country they wanted. In its present socalled non-political character the Association includes in its ranks political opinion of all shades and financial standing. It includes a large number of those whom the extremists would strip of their property, and it is unthinkable that these and the more moderate sections would allow themselves to be

An Unwise Agitation.

utilised for such purposes as the extremists would desire them to he. Hence a big secession.

NOW, however, that the Association is growing to Who’s Who? big dimensions, and is putting forward demands in keeping with its size we want a new “Whos Who” in the Association. We suspect that many of those who are shouting the loudest and making the most extreme demands have the very least title to do so. We ought to have a rigid system of caste in the ranks of returned men. There are men who have gone through the whole sanguinary campaign, while there are others who have not been bitten, or even been near enough to be threatened, by a German flea. Is there no distinction to be made between those who have fought, or been wounded, or have suffered the hardships of the trenches in Gallipoli and France and those who have come back from Featherston, Trentham or the deadly perils of office work in Wellington on good pay? Have they all the same claim on the community and the Government, the same preference in the selection of ,and over civilians? We have over and over asserted that nothing in reason would be too liberal for the fighters, and others, in the firing line, especially for the wounded, whose hurts have partially disabled them from earning a living. But how many of the hundred thousand who have volunteered or been conscripted are there who have actually earned the gratitude of the nation? IT is difficult to understand the immense enHawker’s Welcome. thusiasm with wh’ch Hawker and Grieve have been greeted on their return from their perilous adventure. Everbyody must be glad to hear of their «afety, but even Hawker himself appears to have been astonished at the roaring cordiality of his reception. It has been almost, if not quite hysterical, and even Royalty seems to have been as deeply affected with the wave of emotional hero worship as anybody else, having decorated Hawker, although, taking a cold commonsense view of the matter, inasmuch as he did not complete his task, he accomplished nothing. In a few days the public will wonder what it was that swept it out of itself to such an extent as to acclaim him more than Royalty, or the greatest soldires of the time, who have recently ridden through London. There was, of course, something in the adventure which appealed to the imagination. People were thrilled with the novelty and scale of it, and that it had been undertaken for the glory of the Empire. But as to the bravery of it, w*as that any greater than that displayed by hundreds of British boys every day during the war, who went up in weather foul and fine, to spy out the dispositions of the Huns—marks for their bursting shells? What was Haig’s requiem on those who never came back, but who lay broken and dead in No Man’s Land amidst the wreckage of their machines? “Five of ours are missing. ”

Millions cf people need trepanning in order that their discriminat. ing faculties and their sense of pro - portion might be cobbled.