Untitled

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VI, Issue 1674, 26 June 1919, Page 4

MUTTON OR MEN?

It is a pity that in spite of all the noise on both sides no one seems to know exactly what is happening to our stranded countrymen in Australia. It is quite clear, of course, thai

men and women can't slay indefinitely away from home without pocket trouble, and if it is (rue that New Zcalanders have been reduced to the indignity of accepting assistance from circus proprietors and picture shows the Government has an ugly charge lo answer. Hut the Minister of Interna! Affairs says positively that the Government Agent in Sydney has not reported any cases of extreme distress, and has, moreover, full power to act where relief is necessary. We can only supposein the face of such contradictions that the cry of "Wolf" was raised too soon and a little too unscrupulously, and that now the Government is unduly sceptical about hunger and distress at all. The only thing thai is quite clear is that there has been hysteria on both sides. Virulent influenza must be kepi out of this country—at any cost and any degree of inconvenience; hut that docs no! justify our Government in She first place in regarding anyone from Australia almost as a pariah. There were quarantine stations, or ought to have been, and Mr Russell had lime to get his exiles across before the seamen's strike complicated matters. On the other hand, to send silly stories across about the pawning of jewellery to buy bread, people without food for four days, and other equally lurid stuff, is the very best way to get nothing done. Australia is not the continent some of us know if a single stranded New Zealander goes hungry. But what is this enormous obstacle Sir James Allen has discovered that prevents him from using overseas liners'? How long would a boat he quarantined here when its passengers were all ashore? Anyhow, has the Acting-Prime Minister made any attempt to secure the consent of the Shipping Controller? Instead of telling us that he "does not believe that the Shipping Controller would allow the New Zealand Government to use a refrigerated steamer," it would be better to convince us that he has made an honest endeavour to change the mind of that august authority.