BOLSHEVISM AT THE ANTIPODES.
[TO THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—I have just received a leaflet from the "New Zealand Welfare League," which gives striking evidence of the organized efforts now working in this remote Dominion to destroy the Empire. The local Labour organ—the Maoriland Worker—is, like the Daily Herald and the Communist here, actively engaged in the task of subversion. It states plainly that :—
" If Ireland succeeds in achieving her independence, it means the break-up of the Empire. That will be a blessing to the world and an inspiration to the cause of Labour."
Following the example of the Socialist Sunday Schools here, this wrecking publication has a cleverly written column devoted to the corruption of young children. Here are some specimens of its methods. After explaining the operations of bushrangers, it goes on to instruct the infant minds of New Zealand :-
"Now, Sunbeams, can you see how little difference there is between these rich men and the bushrangers. . . . One threatens to kill you, the other lets you die if you do not pay up; yet the law protects these rich men. . . . It is hard, Sunbeams, to send kind thoughts to these evil men, men who would starve all the babies in town if they could make money by a corner in milk."
The shocking blasphemy inculcated in the songs taught to our boys and girls is paralleled in this " Children's Column ":— " When the Capitalists took the Carpenter and nailed Him to the Cross, they thought that they had killed the Labour movement. . . . Don't forget, Sunbeams, that the Carpenter was crucified for defying the moneybags of His day."
The Welfare League points out that " in addition to the news- papers, there are thousands of seditious and dangerous pamphlets printed in the country and also imported from abroad; but we are glad to say that, from information in our hands, the New Zealand Government is probably attacking this dangerous distribution more vigorously than in any other part of the Empire."
The League have sent me accounts of what the Government is doing, and I agree with them that, here at least, there are no signs of any corresponding determination to prevent the corruption of the people by a paid propaganda mainly the diabolical work of aliens. New Zealand is the most distant of the Dominions. The population is the most purely British in blood, and the climatic and other conditions closely resemble those of the Motherland. No country in the world enjoys a freer constitution. There are no glaring inequalities of wealth, and every honest worker can obtain a competence. Yet a Member of the New Zealand Parliament is able to get up in his place and say :— " As soon as possible, I will help to get rid of Parliament as it is now constituted and institute in its place an Industrial Parliament that will reflect the useful people of the Dominion." There appear to be persons here who affect to believe that the idea of a world conspiracy against the British Empire is the figment of a few easily perturbed brains. I can only assumo that such persons neglect to follow movements all over the Empire, such as those in New Zealand which I have attempted to describe, and that they are blind to the wholesale corruption proceeding unchecked in this country. The question which now faces our and other civilized Governments is this, " Where the freest institutions yet devised are in existence, is it wise, is it safe, to permit the open diffusion of the doctrines borrowed by Karl Marx from earlier revolutionaries, especially when the propagandists are largely aliens? " In the House of Lords, on April 11th last, I said that "In a country where almost every adult has the vote, it cannot be necessary to permit civil war to be openly advocated," and I submitted that "the time may have come to put an end to subsidized propaganda in this country," or at least " to publish the truth." Lord Curzon, in reply, said that the Government was "devoting most serious attention" to this grave ques'icn: but I cannot see that any effective action has been taken, and I beg you, Sir, to continue to point out the grave dangers which now menace free institutions, and especially our far-flung
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