OVER THE TOP.

Observer, Volume XL, Issue 11, 15 November 1919, Page 3

OVER THE TOP.

Charge I the L.S.D.!

PEOPLE at Home who own huge sums of money as a result of war profits have been agreeing that the war profiteers ought to go "over the top" with their money bags, just'as the soldier went over the top with his bayonet and his pack. The position is that unless the people who made money out of the war pay the war bill, the sailor and the soldier, their sons, daughters, and great grandchildren will be as liable for the bill as. the person who multiplied his millions. One has not yet heard of any act in Great Britain that will call on Jack Tar and Tommy Atkins to make a present of some more millions to millionaires in the New Zealand way —which is being called equalisation; but which is just plain robbery. If John Bull really does get out after the person with the war-millions, and makes him pay for the war, it is sincerely hoped the system will spread, even as far as remote New Zealand, where at present the habit is to discover who has. made the most money out of the people, and to then tax the people for more money to give to the already opulent.

One wealthy bird has said, "It is an outrage to ask men to fire shells and to pay for them, too," but no doubt British millionaires will be able to prove, like New Zealand profiteers, that they lost money horribly during the war, and ought to be recouped by an admiring and sympathetic Government. Up to now in New Zealand no association of war profiteers has volunteered to pay the national debt, and the children of the maimed pensioner will bear their proportion and the burden with the new aristocracy of wealth.

The Controller of His Majesty's Treasury in New Zealand would be astounded beyond measure if tomorrow he received a million pounds '"'conscience money" from a select coterie of beef, butter, wool, and mutton monarchs. There is no present indication that these gentlemen will be commanded by the present Government or its successor to "go over the top," but there is plenty of indication that the Government is absolutely Scriptural in its reading, "Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and more abundance who hath not shall be taken that he hath." Should John Bull reverse the order, wonder whether John Bull, Jun., could find it in his heart to follow suit?