The Timaru Herald. SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 1902.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 11665, 25 January 1902, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 1902.

We have received the text of the requisition which has been addressed to Mr A. R. Barclay by 135 of the electors of the Ravensbourne part of the Dunedin City electorate, calling upon him to resign his seat in the House of Representatives in consequence of the opinions expressed by him in certain letters which appeared in the " Otago Daily Times" and the Dunedin "Evening Star," oh the subject of the war in South Africa. We have not- heard of any requisition to the same effect having been sent to him by electors in other portions of the electorate. We are surprised at tie fact, for there can be no doubt that the feeling against him is very strong and widespread in consequence of his recent utterances. The requisitionists consider that Mr Barclay, in applying the term "infamous" to the action of the Imperial Government prior to the commencement of the war, and their subsequent conduct of it, especially their treatment of the Boer women and children in the camps formed for their shelter and preservation, " has wilfully shut his eyes to the weight of evidence, and has drawn conclusions in regard to the mortality in those camps discreditable alike to his reasoning faculties and his position as a good subject lof the King." Mr Barclay may reply . ' that he set down nothing but what he regarded as the truth. Such an answer is clearly insufficient to meet the case. A good many of his " facts " were drawn from tainted sources, and the whole tone of his letters was thoroughly disloyal, and directly at variance with the overwhelming mass of public opinion both at Home and in the colonies. The requisitionists say further:—"We consider that if your contention is sound that the war is ' infamous,' and that the colonies have been 'had,' then volunteers like our fellow-colonists, who are fighting for conviction's sake and the unity of tlie Empire, must be 'infamous ' also." Further, the requisitionists charge Mr Barclay, and charge him truly, with having ascribed corruption to the Imperial authorities in the conduct of the war, and with having attempted to belittle the action of the New Zealand Government in their efforts to render assistance to the Mother Country. Mr Barclay's action is said to be " a direct encouragement to the enemy to resist, and may reasonably be considered as 'infamous' on the part of one who holds a public trust, and who has taken, as it were, a double oath of fealty to the Empire." Such is the substance of the requisition—the only one of the sort that has ever been addressed to a member of the New \ Zealand House of Representatives. It is very much to be regretted that the requisition is not a general one, from all parts of the electorate, and the fact that it is not so may be taken advantage of by the offending member, and may be used as a ground for'clinging to his seat. He may urge that if the views of the requisitionists had been shared by the constituency generally, or by a large proportion < of the voters, they would have adopted the same method of endeavouring to get rid of their so-called representative. He may also urge that a large number of those who do not share his pro-Boer proclivities, his bad opinion of the statesmen who at present direct Imperial affairs, and his disgust at the conduct of the war in South Africa, may nevertheless desire to retain his services as a member of the House of Representatives, because they -are in accord with him on other questions, and particularly the questions more especially affecting New Zealand. The Dunedin City constituency should at once disabuse his mind of any such ideas. Here is a- great opportunity of testing public opinion in one of the chief centres of the colony concerning the South African war, and it should not be allowed to slip away. The pro-Boers, the Little Englanders, and the very small disloyad minority, are given ' to magnifying their own numbers and importance, and a lesson, such as a generally signed requisition to Mr Barclay to retire into private life, might be useful to them, and considerably quiet them if it did not make them ashamed. But it is doubtful whether the most numerously signed requisition would induce Mr Barclay to resign. He is fond of the position which he occupies,' and he is secure in it till the nest General Election. We may perhaps do him an injustice, but we do' not credit him with the possession of that fine feeling and that sense of right which would prompt, or rather compel, a man of a nobler stamp to resign as soon as he became aware that he was no longer I wanted by those whose votes had sent him into Parliament.