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A VISITOR'S COMMENTS ON THE ZANOVIEFF LETTER.

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PBESS." Sir, —Perhaps the views of an English visitor who has had a fairly intimate acquaintance with the inner working of Government Departments in London during the past few years may be of interest to your readers at the present juncture. New Zealanders may well be confused by the long telegrams regarding the Euasian disclosures and the"attitude of Mr Mac Donald and the Labour Party thereto. The keynote to the situation is the existence of the sound, honest, permanent staff of our Government Departments. No political party has yet been able to tamper with these men who corporately represent an asset the value of which to the Empire is little realised. The Government Departments chiefly concerned at the present moment arc the Foreign and Home Offices, each of which possesses a section keenly watching Eussia and her world revolutionary activities. The Home Office section is of course concerned with revolutionary propaganda. It is the Secret Service, founded largely on our war experience, handicapped by visionaries, but still not entirely disabled. For this fact we may be thankful. We may safely assume that the Zinovieff letter was intercepted by the Secret Service section. It would be communicated, after due proof of authenticity, to all Government Departments interested—the Foreign Office, the General Staff of the War Office, and the Admiralty. Steps may have been taken to prevent its circulation to the Cabinet, but this would be a political and not a routine procedure. Dates do not matter. It is easy to juggle with dates on which various people "saw" a document or minuted thereon. The facts are pretty clear to the writer:

(1) Mac-Donald, a fairly elcvcr, able, and honest visionary, handicapped l»y lack of all practical political, administrative, and. wc may add, world experience, inevitably found himself at the outset of his career tangled in the meshes of both the visionary and malevolent sections. The latter he was bound to placate. (2) rinding himself in power, otherwise unbearable responsibilities forced reliance on the knowledge and experience of permanent Government Departments. The struggle that both Mr Mac Donald and his Departments must have had during the past few months can hardly be described to those outside political and Departmental circles: the Prime Minister to adjust his own and liia Departments' consciences to the needs of party; the Departments between loyalty to the existing regime and the welfare of the countrv.

(3) "We must take it that the publication of the Zinovieff letter, the genuineness of which is beyond question, represents a triumph (however temporary and regretted) for the Prime Minister's conscience. We can imagine tho Telief of tho Foreign Office at receiving permission to publish and at tho actual publication before frantic orders to withhold the letter could be received.

No well-wisher of the Empire can resist hoping that the British elector will be at last aroused to the fact that he is being ruined by visionaries and the malevolents who are exploiting tbe visionaries. No institutions are invulnerable. Another period of trial might well sap the foundations of Whitehall.

j Ui>oii which in the end the fortunes of | this splendid little country depend.— I I enclose mv card, and remain, | A YERY GOOD FRIEXB OF NEW ZEALAND.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19241030.2.109.5

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18217, 30 October 1924, Page 12

Word count
Tapeke kupu
548

A VISITOR'S COMMENTS ON THE ZANOVIEFF LETTER. Press, Volume LX, Issue 18217, 30 October 1924, Page 12

A VISITOR'S COMMENTS ON THE ZANOVIEFF LETTER. Press, Volume LX, Issue 18217, 30 October 1924, Page 12

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