The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1920. FALSE IDOLS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18019, 6 November 1920, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1920. FALSE IDOLS.

In the House of Representatives, at the beginning of last month, Mr. Ed. Newman drew the attention of the Prime Minister to an article which had appeared in a Wellington newspaper, in which it was stated that some of the speakers at a Labour meeting quietly and frankly advocated the institution in this country of the Soviet system, under which Russia has been reduced to a condition of ruin and misery. In his reply, Mr. Massey expressed the opinion that such statements were seditious. One of the speakers at the meeting referred to had urged that the workers of New Zealand should organise as the workers of Russia and Italy were organised, and another expressed the hope that within two years an industrial Parliament would be established in place of the present political Parliament. Both statements were, in Mr. Massey’s opinion, seditious, but Mr. Holland declared that it would be all right of it was done constitutionally. Mr. Massey reiterated his opinion that such statements were seditious, whereupon Mr. Holland retorted that he was prepared to advocate it. In pursuing the matter further, Mr. Massey said the Bolshevism that was being preached every day in the larger centres of the Dominion was worse than folly, and could only end in one way—in disaster—and the matter must be taken in hand and stopped. To talk about an industrial Parliament, and one on the lines of the so-called Parliament that governed Russia, was folly, and he could tell the honourable member for Buller that if he, Mr. Holland, had any connection with the matter and was in sympathy with what had been stated—and he (Mr. Massey) thought that he had—then he would tell the honourable member that New Zealand was British, and was going to remain so, and that Parliament was going to represent the whole of the people of the Dominion. . . The people who preached the doctrines indicated were the enemies of the country, and of its people, anefc such a state of affairs had to be put down. They had allowed the things to go much too far, and it had to be stopped before trouble came. One writer, in commenting on the incident, raises au interesting point. He admits, of course, that Mr. Holland’s statement in the House was privileged; but, he adds, assuming that the Member for Buller made the statement outside and advocated as he expressed his preparedness to do, the overthrow of the present Parliament and the substitution of the Soviet form of Government, would he not be guilty of sedition, if not actually of treason? As a member of Parliament he has taken the oath of allegiance to the King and the Constitution, and declared his readiness to bear true allegiance to His Majesty and observe the laws and so on. Can he advocate Sovietism, which is the direct negation of monarchial and constitutional government such as he is sworn to uphold, without violating the law? The Alliance of Labour, it is understood, is convening a conference of unions to be held in Wellington early this month, when, it is whispered, an attempt will be made

to secure the endorsement of a plan of campaign to bring about a socalled “Industrial Parliament” to take the place of the existing Parliament. There are interesting possibilities ahead. How far will people who abuse the freedom and privileges they enjoy as British subjects, be allowed to proceed? Surely no clear-minded student of sociology can fail to have been struck by the vast difference between the ; intellectual conception of human brotherhood and the proletariat conception. The one stands for a brotherhood of service, of goodwill, of man’s obligation to man. The other—the Bolshevik conception—is absolutely material. And it has been truly said that no movement the mainspring of which is gross materialism can succeed for long. In a Dominion such as ours it ought not to be possible for it to succeed at all.