The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 1917. "FREEDOM OF SPEECH."

Waikato Times, Volume 88, Issue 13462, 17 April 1917, Page 4

The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 1917. "FREEDOM OF SPEECH."

The timberworkers who waited upon the Acting-Premier in Wellington last week to protest against the prolongation of the life of Parliament, and to demand the release of the men who have been imprisoned for breaches of the war regulations, seem to have altogether lost sight of the fact that we are at war, and that the very life of the nation is dependent upon the outcome of the tremendous struggle in Europe. They took exception to the curtailment of what they termed "the right of free speech," and contended that the men now in gaol had not said "anything very wrong except according to the Act," and that "the blame really lies at the door of Parliament which passed the Act they criticised." That statement of the position is not only misleading, but decidedly unfortunate. The facts were made very plain during the hearing of the sedition appeal cases, judgment in which was given recently, and Sir James Allen's denial of the statement that the Government had suppressed the right of free speech, or the right of criticism, backed up as it is by the decision of the judges, should satisfy any reasonably minded person on that point. We have not yet passed under martial law in this country, but it has been necessary to severely curtail the liberties of the subject in order that we may be better fitted to deal with the enemy menace. For that purpose a War Regulations Act was passed, under which, the •' Governor in Council has power to make regulations against seditious utterances, and to generally regulate the machinery of government, on such lines as will permit of the successful prosecution of the war. The time has gone by for arguing whether we were right in going to war, and the nation has to accept the situation as it stands, with a foe pledged to our destruction and to the annexation of our free country. And it is the bounden duty of every citizen, in this hour of national peril, to do all that he possibly can to assist the State in prosecuting the war. The Military Service Act has been accepted by the great majority of the people of New Zealand, without demur or protest, and the discontented minority must loyally acept the decision of the majority and abide by it. We cannot, in the midst of a great war, tolerate actions that would impair the unity of the nation and weaken the stand we are making in,defence of our rights and liberties as a free people, And the courts have ruled that the utterances for which the offenders against the war regulations have been sentenced to imprisonment are not only seditious, but are calculated to deter men and women from loyally co-operat-ing in that defence. To say, or do, things that would hamper the movements of troops or troopships, or that would stir up disaffection in the ranks of the people, savours of a disloyalty that must be met and put down -by the firm hand of the law. That law the Government is bound to maintain, because it is only through its impartial administration that we can hope to win out in the fearful struggle to which we are irrevocably committed.