MR. HUGHES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 137, 5 March 1919, Page 5

MR. HUGHES

. AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER 1 DISSECTED AS AN ENGLISHMAN SEES HIM

An outspoken estimate of Mr. W. M. Hughes and his activities in the political circles of England is. given by E. T. Raymond in his new book, "Uncensored Celebrities," a collection i of critical ■studies of thirty or forty prominent pubIn men, published in London , by T. lusher XJnwiu. ' After a very brief sketch of Mr. Hughes'e career up to the time when 'he visited England in 1915, Mr. Raymond writes:—"He knew very little of English life,, but he had his early memories which" sufficed to give him just contempt for many of our institutions, but also' a most unjust notion of the real qualities of the nation. Hβ either did not know or had forgotten that our old and polished society breeds in great numbers persons who are described by the police as confidence men. Scotland Yard takes cognisance only of the coarser varieties of the class. It affects to know nothing, of those who- infest political society, lying in wait for ■ iuiibcerits from ■ overseas qnd the provinces. Mr. Hughes's first speech had much the same effect on these gentlemen that the appearance of a stout Suffolk farmer might on a roomful of professional,'crooks.' '.He found himself surrounded with persons flashing great wads of Bank of' Patriotis m: notes, which he, poo? man! could not possibly detect as spurious. Before honest Mr. Hughes well knew what ho .was doing, he was hocussed, and he has not yet succeeded 'in'throwing oft influence of the drugs. "It. suited the political. purposes of a ■certain clique to represent Mr. Hughes : e$ the one earnest man struggling, to free the British Commonwealth from German influences, but frustrated ! n that endeavour.'by a knot of.English party.politicians.. Broadly speaking, this clique, of .'all others, was most naturally hostile lo every ideal Mr. Hughes stood for in Australian politics. It dfsired protection in the interests of British landlords and manufacturers, and not, as in Australia's case, in the interests of the workers. It stood for a kind of Imperialism which, in the long run, must ha\e come into collision with the quite natural desire of Australia to become more and more a distinct nation; It stood for minority rule, both in Great Britain nnd in Ireland. It found in the fervoar of Hughes a weapon which it could use. and that weapon was-used without icniple. "Still, Mr, Hughes, is an Australian, mid Australia'would no doubt be with him in an serious collision wilh British opinion. It is that possibility which makes so exceedingly serious the transformation of a Dominion Prime Minister into a British party, asset. The forma] relations of Australia, or any other- Dominion, to (lie Mother Country are of jess importance than many people imagine. It really 'does not. matter very much whether we continue to send second' . rate noblemen to, represent the King in the Commonwealth. What does matter is that there shall bo no sense of grievance or incompatibility between the two communities, that Australia shall have no feeling' of being used by Britain, and that Britain shall be free from any impression of being bustled or hustled by Australia. •• ■••■■•■ :.

I "It would be unfair to accuse Mr. Hughes of consciously imperilling a good understanding!. He has 'butted in/ to edopt Mr, Lloyd George's Americanism, with the best .intentions.- He believes Tjutting in' is really appreciated by the mass of people in this country, lie is, indeed, a man singularly ingenuous. He does not seem to have suspected in the least the very suspicious people who have- 'run , him in London; he does not appear even to be conscious of being 'run/ He has a good nrnny points in common iritli our own Prime Minister. He makes it a rale never to see more than one side of a cane at a time, though lie may see nil sides in turn. Ho is more the slave than the master of his own rhetoric. His eloquenco has not. the same poetic . quality, an Mr. Lloyd Georges;'he' lackiTfho 'unerring instinct for effect which makes even Mr. George's most commonplace efforts distinctive. He seldom coins a phrase; his figures come from the till and not from the mint, and mainly belong to the copper currency But he has something of the same power of reaching the ordinary man, and not a little of the same habit'of intoxicating himself as well as his audience. ■ 'Such a man may be -useful if his energies are properly controlled and applied to.a suitable objective.. He may easily become a calamitous nuisance if he runs amuck, and Mr. Hughes has in fact, rather run amuck during both his visits w> Great Britain. It cannot be a good thing to permit any considerable party in the United Kingdom to believe that they .have a determined enemy in the Prime .Minister of an oversea Dominion. Not can , h i" fi ?? r be » efit ° f the Alliance as a whole that Mr Hughes should declaim at« tme timei a Monroe Doctrine for the J.acific. Strangely enough, the world at largo is no more interested in the special Australian point of view than it is in the special Montenegrin point of view. We cannot blame Mr. Hughes for failing to see things in their exact proportiins: there irere British propagandists nho once believed that Prance., and Russia, ■Italy and-the United States were enormously interested in-the bombing of Broadstairs and the shelling of Hartlepool.

V-m ,s /'l, fno^ tl } at the world thinis very little of New Guinea and Samoa, and a great deal about the avoidance of further dispute about such trifles as Samoa and ISiew Guinea. Monroe Doctrines of any kind belong, like spheres of influence ami -places in the sun, to the old world which has.perished in this war. Mr Hughes, with all his progressive .notions,' seems too old-fashioned even to conceive what the new world must be if it is to be a world-worth, living in. .It would seem that Mr. Hughes envisages a world in which what is called Anglo-Saxoridom will be aU-ppwevfiil. That may Iμ very pleasing to Anglo-Saxon' racial pride, Have we the smallest guarantee that the rest of the world-a. not inconsiderable fragment—will be content? "The main aim will not lie advanced bv a furious quarrel between one of the * Sγ 1 nolltlc al parties and the Premier of the Australian Commonwealth. That is why many people who.have sympathy and admiration for- Mr. Hnghea entertain misgjvincs. which they hardly dare to express. For the position h not a little awkward. It is never pleasant to give a Vi i a glle3t, a P d t,iere is "ere the added danger that it might be construed into in affront to a nation."