A LITTLE BEGINNING.

Observer, Volume XXXVII, Issue 15, 16 December 1916, Page 2

A LITTLE BEGINNING.

Purging the State

NO. internal event could be such a balm to the feelings of ordinary everyday loyalists than the arrest of Robert Semple in Christchurch on a charge, of making a seditious speech in Auckland, although, it is matter for a little wonder that he even escaped from tihe theatre where he showed exactly what he thought of the Empire which protects him. It is at the moment impossible to foresee what effect an isolated arrest will have on the great body of the/ unthinking who 'appear to believe that venomous antipathy to constituted law, verbal abuse and threats ot "direct action" is "progress." The indications are. that Semple may be regarded as a poor suffering martyr who has sacrificed his freedom m the cause of federated noise.

The action that has at last been taken might "have been taken m several instances any time during the past two years, and it is ex-

ceedingly remarkable that the venomous band is more bold, at least in lip-fighting, the greater the problem of the Allies becomes. It has. bean the custom in Auckland for garrulous propagandists of hate against their own country to use Sunday for * the dissemination of views which, were the propagandists Germans speaking in Germany, would be punished -with death. The State, which has attacked minor problems, has been exceptionally reticent m tackling this the most important internal problem of all. There is a sinister alliance between the ruffians of Australia who have burnt, ana robbed and murdered and the men who have been allowed a comparatively free hand in New Zealand. These men are of a distinct type. They are not really concerned with the" worker's lot in any country; merely moving from country to country as the prospect of making trouble appears most rosy. For to this particular kind of person trouble is money and clothes and food and limelight.

With characteristic cowardice, the men whose whole creed is summed up in "put in the boot," select for their vindictive and sinister campaign a time when they suppose the man power of the country is weakest, and when they assume that a highly important branch of the protective paraphernalia of the country is not wholly loyal to the Empire. The threat to pile on an Empire fighting for its. life industrial fights to augment the trouble, and to aid the Central Empires, is ae. much German as is an order from Potsdam. The State has a pej"** right to regard propagandists of the type it has. now seen to be evil, not only as wickedly perverted Britishers', but as German enemies. The man who openly counsels other men to fight against his own brothers, tofight" the food of women and children, and to stop the wheels of industry, is more dangerous than a. German soldier who is only doing the ' job he's ordered to do. Savages should be fought savagely, ruthlessly, fearlessly. There is no singleI.W.W. man in New Zealand who ie not a> coward or who would do any act of brigandage if he thought his own .carcase would suffer, but there are many decent men who, incapable of* thinking for themselves, cheer the ruffians for what they suppose is heroism of speech. We havealready had absurd threats that sol- . diers who have fought the Kings enemies will return to their own countries with rifles m their hands to fight their own kith and km. Such sedition used to be stamped , out as soon as it appeared, and it would be stamped out here if New Zealanders at home were used tothe. , real physical sufferings, of war. We suffer these, pests because, politicians are afraid.