THIS FREEDOM

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 60, Issue 4231, 15 January 1940, Page 5

THIS FREEDOM

PACIFISTS WARNED. TE KUITI RECEPTION. A Te Kuiti returned soldier, writing in the Chronicle about the recent visit of two avowed pacifists from Wellington, in the course of a tour of the North Island, says:— Sir, —I agree with “Lover of Freedom” that the reception accorded to last Saturday’s speakers was not in line with Te Kuiti’s established repu tation, but, of course, we were not prepared and we hope to do better next time. Meanwhile it might be interesting to contrast the reception given Mr Barrington and his friend in Te Kuiti with what might be expected elsewhere. In Japan, for instance, Mr B. and his pal would be stripped to their birthday suits, tapped gently on the posterior with a bamboo cane three times and their throats cut. Their next of kin would subsequently receive a polite note with a chrysanthemum in the corner, regretting the necessity for removing such honorouble gentlemen. In Russia, our pacifist would, of course, be welcomed by the Commissars, introduced to Stalin and entertained for a week. At the end of that time they would probably be shot in the back of the neck.

In pre-civil war Spain, Mr B. and his pal would be thrown into prison. marched out daily for six days for execution, and finally machine-gunned on the seventh day. In Germany, they would have to choose between two deaths, a living death in a concentration camp or a quick one at the hands of the executioner. We hope, however, that Mr B. will return to Te Kuiti and that on that occasion he will have a suitable bodyguard of the local “Leftists,” Communists and friends of the Soviet. The returned men will also be on hand.