A FIERCE ONSLAUGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 256, 2 November 1906, Page 5

A FIERCE ONSLAUGHT.

BY THE SYDNEY " HERALD." (Received 10.13 a.m.) hxLtXEY.. this day. The "Sydney Morning Herald' , says: /'Mr. Churchill has apparently strangely 'misunderstood the attitude of the Comi monwealth and New Zealand with regard !to the New Hebrides. Wnen Mr. Churchill states that Australasian acquiescence to tho Convention has b en obtained it is J stretching the courtesy of diplomacy to the breaking-point. What Mr. Deakin and Sir Joseph Ward said in the end was that as the Imperial Government had disregarded their proposals, they left ■ the responsibility of completing the Conjvention on the shoulders of the Colonial Ofiice. They should not have s>a.id tnis; ■ they should have declared plainly that tht; Convention was, and is. opposed to the best interests of New Zealand and Australia, and they therefore must refuse to sanction it in any way. Their acceptance of the inevitable hifls been translated into acquiescence in the policy of the new arrangement, and this translation of their attitude will be an eloquent warning for the future. Australians may hardly be blamed for recognising in the Convention a new evidence of the desire to buy, :>reTgn friendship at t::e expense of the colonies. The Convention is absolutely against tho interests of both of the colonies concerned and of our Empire. It is a weak and unworthy concession to politeness or to pressure."