The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1917. PROMULGATORS OF COMMOTION

Waikato Times, Volume 88, Issue 13475, 4 May 1917, Page 4

The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1917. PROMULGATORS OF COMMOTION

The numerous prosecutions for seditious acts and utterances which are being heard in the Courts in various parts of the Dominion should he sufficient to convince our Government that the movement requires dealing with with a firm hand. It is time to take off the gloves and force the enemy into the open, where he can be effectively dealt with. It is useless to deny that there are dangerous inlluences at work, and unless they are promptly nipped they will result in a big volume of trouble in the not distant future. We are living at present in a fool's paradise. The men who have been brought before the Courts constitute but a very small percentage of the disaffected, and an active propaganda is even now being prosecuted under the very noses of the Ministers to foment and foster discontent and the spirit of rebellion. The movement is being championed in some unexpected quarters. There are, for instance, religious papers, which claim to speak for and to represent a very large section of the community which hide seditious sentiments with a very flimsy covering 'ind serve up pabulum calculated to engender contempt for British rule and undermine authority. What the object is can only be guessed at; but it must be something sinister. Britain's victories in France are derided, Germany's awful deeds are condoned because it is alleged that the British have perpetrated even greater horrors, while the King is openly said to be more German than the Kaiser! To the man or woman who love their country, and are true to their own people, such opinions will- have no other effect than to arouse feelings of

utter loathing and disgust, combined with amazement, that any man who claims the protection of the Union Jack could write and publish such views, as he must know them to be false; that he does so openly and unashamed but serves to show the hold the seditious sentiment has attained; yet Ministers altogether ignore the position and instead of grappling with it, pander to it and enter into compacts with the perpetrators, the conditions of which are at once wantonly broken by the one side, while the Government not only fulfil all their obligations but go even further and strain both law and justice to concede more than they promised. It is a pitiable spectacle. The National Government was called into being in order that great problems could be dealt with fearlessly and with a strong hand;, but it has not shown that determination and backbone which was hoped and expected of it. In many cases it has proved to be as flabby as a filleted fish. Possibly Ministers cannot forget their old party interests ande are afraid to take up a strong attitude lest it tell against them at the next poll. It should not be so. The country at the present crisis requires statesmen, not politicians; men who have the courage of their convictions, who will place country before party and give the State priority to selfinterest. It is no use politicians preaching patriotism if they cannot rise above party themselves. The Dominion is in need of strong men—men who will place principles right in the forefront, and scorn to compromise with those whose chief aim is to flout the law and defy authority. This was what it was hoped the National Government Would secure for us, but the hopes have not been realised. We know that it is confronted with a difficult task, and that Ministers are entitled to the sympathetic support of the people in their arduous duties; but we are satisfied that many of the problems with which they are confronted would vanish into thin air if they were firmly grappled with. In the words of our old schoolbook—

Tender-handed stroke the nettle, and it stings you for your pains; Grasp it like a man of mettle and it soft as silk remains.

If Ministers would but face soipe of their difficulties with as much assiduity as tliey now seek to elude them they would receive much moi% ! - sympathy and add to their prestige at the same time. And the first thing they should earnestly apply themselves to is the seditionary movement.