HUNS IN OFFICE.

Observer, Volume XXXV, Issue 49, 14 August 1915, Page 3

HUNS IN OFFICE.

Oppressing the Mourners

A. JUDGE of the Supreme Court has ruled! that the mere report from a military officer that one of hie men has been killed in action or died of wounds—or died anyhow—cannot be accepted as legal proof of death—and! that Judge ought to be very proud of himself. He is going to sow New Zealand with sorrow and poverty. He should get an Iron Cross. Such a report is sufficient for the authorities to immediately stop the soldier s pay. It he isn't legally dead), why stop the pay? If the pay is stopped because he is entered m the casualty lists as dead, is it not possible for a Judge to strain his law-d)estroyed intellect to the point of believing him dead i We have at the present time in New Zealand some of the most maliciously <jrueli examples of official red tape ever tied round bleeding hearts, ihe State has undertaken in the vilest possible way to haras® the widow and the fatherless and to shelter behind the cruellest decision that ever befouled the fair name of Justice.

We stay-at-homes by every means known to\is encourage boys to go asokliering. We get sloppily sentimental over it. Other parts of New Zealand even cheer soldiers on their way and Auckland has given two imitations of a cheer already. We «endl these gallant men to OUR aid and often to their deaths. We call their deaths "splendid deaths" and publish "Rolls of Honour." We accept these "Rolls of Honour" as proof that our loved ones are dead. We go into mourning for them because the authorities in Gallipoli or Egypt who are on the spot say they are dead. Officiate here bound hand and foot with red tape don't believe "Rolls of Honour" or in the honour of officers. Some mother or widow or little children, might be saved from starvation, so the red-tape charlot rolls over the widow and the mother and the children, and an abominably soulless State rides on the chariot. Samples of the atrocity are common, but one is sufficient. Lieutenant Eric Dodson, of an Auckland regiment, is dead. We earnestly believe him dead. His aged' parents, whose support he was, know him to be dlead. AVhen, he was returned as dead by the authorities in the field who knew him to be dead the sorrowing parents received at once the sincere condolences of the Premier. The Premier, you see, believed young Dodson to be dead. They showedl this in black and white. Immediately after the receipt of this condolence came from the authorities the sum of £1, being the final payment," as there was- "no proof ot .•death." If you can produce a more damnable example of calculated cruelty than that aimed at mourning people, we shall be glad to hear of it.

The case of Lieutenant Eric Dodson is the case of many other© and the reason of the atrocity is the decision of the Supreme Court, apparently a Court interesting only in proving that all men are liars and that people wear mourning for pastime. There is palpably no politician, no authoritative soldier, no State servant who will rise superior to the outrageous decision, or who "has any bowels of comoassion for the widow and the fatherless. Consider the consequences of this decision. Many of these soldiers who are unquestionably buried in. Gal'lipoli had insured! their lives. Although the State has initially recognised their death by sending crocodile condolences the State declares they are not legally proved to be dead. One wants •to know what steps- the unspeakable ■authorities are going to take. Are

they ' going to Search' among' the ridlges of Gallipoli for fragments of these men? Will they examine officers with the fighting forces in order to endeavour to prove they are liars? ' „. ■ •

The State deciding to make a "final payment"'gives the precedent to insurance companies to make no payment at all. In many cases the loss of a soldier's life, therefore, is the loss of the parents' income. It is deliberately pfanneldj by the State that a mother who is fool enough to get a. boy killed! shall; suffer for it and; shall breakfast, dine and sup on crocodile State "condolences." The appalling ineptitude of the Premier and th© Minister of Defence was never ibetter exemplified. They simply endorse and condone a process which is a refinement of caluculaetd; cruelty. Is there a man in this LionLamb Ministry who is able or willing to strike a blow ait this fester? Is there a man who can calmly see a procession of mothers weeping for their dead sons, but who hide behind a legal quibble and say "How do you know he's dead:—let her starve!" In hundreds of cases the soldlier's identificatio» discs will never be returned and if the State persists in its terrible decision that a man is only legally dead l when a, State servant has been to Gallipoli, the State is a tyrant that should be fighting for the Hun®. New Zealand should ask the Premier how he dares to hold his position while he hi dies behind a legal quibble to rob sorrowing dependents of their just dues. It is evident that to the peculiarly twisted intellect of the State that our soldiers are not dead —but only shamming.

Put it this way. The Minister for Kauri Loss dies in the Ministerial residence from cerebro-epinal meningitis. His wife perishes of diptheria his children die respectively of septic throat, measles-, and scarlet fever). Therefore a mew Minister for Kauri Logs must be appointed. The Ministry declare that the Ministerial residence Is "as healthy, if not healthier" than all other Ministerial residences. Therefore the new Minister for Kauri Logs, who has a wife, a mother and! father and sixteen children, shall still inhabit the vacated residence. Cam you imagine it? No, you can't! And neither can we. Plague breaks out in Parliament. Buildings, the place is infested! with bubonic rats and a dozen M.PvS die of festering disease—die black in the face, mad and rotten. The Government decides that that Parliament House is "as healthy, if not healthier" than all olher Parliament Houses. If you believe Mr Allen about Trentham you believe the above fiction. What would you do with a Ministry that insisted on the occupation of a plague-infested building? What db you think of a Minister who "sticks to his guns" and carries on when tjhe whole country, expert and inexpert, (the latter including the mothers of the State slain) cries for decentralisation and just common, ordinary, decent, normal health for the men who are to fight the battles of the Empire? Perhaps you know . nothing ■of oerebro - spinal meningitis? And Providence prevent you from looking on a. case! The man who can stand up and exude official gabble justifying sending men back to a place infected by it should be rooted out, booted out, got out by any means available, thrown into outer political darkness.