NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 242, 7 July 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

"Trust the people” is a very out-of-date maxim in extremist Labour quarters in New Zealand. The New Zealand Workers’ Union has reached the stage of not even trusting its own members. According to the official report of its recent conference proceedings it adopted the following rule:— That nominations for executive officers shall ’bo approved by the Executive Council before being submitted to a plebiscite of the members, provided that in the event of any nomination being disapproved the reasons for so doing shall be submitted to annual conference.

This means that an extremist clique in office can block any member not of its kidney from standing for election for executive office in the union. True, after the election is over and the objectionable intruders have been kept out a reason fur disapproval has to be submitted to the annual conference. It is a delightful way of running an election, but those who got the rule passed must think the New Zealand rural worker extraordinarily thick in the heed not to see through it. Presumably he would not have stood a straight-out rule that the executive shall elect itself, so the organising fraternity threw a thin camouflage over it and got it through. One can imagine the howl of rage and indignation there would bt through the country if it were laid down that no one could stand for Parliament until his nomination had been approved by n majority of the present members of Parliament. But apparently the rural workers lured into the Workers’ Union have submitted like lambs to this amazing piece of effrontery.

If Australia and New Zealand detire any largely increased naval protection in the Pacific they must be prepared to put their hands in their pockets and pay for it. That is the principal fact that emerges from the naval debate at the Imperial Conference. Until the outcome of the disarmament conference with America and Japan is known it doos not seem that definite plans for naval defence can be usefully formulated for submission to the various Dominions. Should an agreement be reached, to cease further expenditure on naval armaments for a period of years—as everybody hopes it will be—the burden all round will be greatly lightened. The decisions to be reached on the renewal of the Irc-aty with Japan must also affect tho situation. The section either in Britain or the Dominions which desires a huge Navy as a big stick to he shaken in the face of all nations is not large. The desires a naval protection adequate to secure the British Commonwealth against all potential enemies comprises the great majority of its citizens who have given tho matter any serious thought. The throe nations whose navies count —Britain, the United States, and Japan-are agreed in principle upon a limitation of armaments. It has etill to 'be discovered whether they can reach agreement upon the much more difficult question of the practical steps to lie taken to give effect to that principle. Until the cards are on the table and tho air has been cleared, British naval policy can only be a matter of watchful wailing.

Injudicious talk in Japan by a bellicose XVar Minister will not improve the prospects of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty. Yesterday's cable message showed unanimity at the Imperial Conference on the principle of maintaining peace in Asia, guaranteeing the integrity of China and the open door to commerce, but a slight division of opinion over the clauses providing for defensive action by either party to the treaty should the other be the object of an unprovoked attack. The cable correspondent—who.se guess may or may not be reliable—states that four of the members of the Conference were in favour of these clauses and two against. The two dissentients presumably wish to take still further precautions to avoid being drawn by any possible chance to a defence of unwarranted action by Japan. Their misgivings will not be removed by General Yamanashi’s speech. Deprecating deference to British and American opinion, the new War Minister urges Japan to pursue her own path, and he adds that Italy’s withdrawal from the Triple Alliance proved tho instability of such agreements. Public memory is not so short as to have forgotten that Italy -was bound under that alliance to fight only in a defensive war. nnd when Austria-Hungary and Germany declared war in 1914 she properly proclaimed her neutrality, as the war was not a defensive war within the terms of the treaty. Her allies thought that having pledged herself to fight a defensive

war. she should have been ready to fight any war. General Yamanashi apparently shares their view. If that is the sort of treaty he wants, he is right in thinking he will not obtain it from Britain or the British Dominions. Herr Hugo Stinnes, the Najiolcon of German industry, has been turning his attention to Austria and Slovakia. Ho has acquired interests in various ironworks in those countries. With hie advent blast furnaces that have been closed down for eighteen months and more have taken on new life. What relief organisations. reparation and repartition, commissions. English and American missions, and international ( conferences by the half dozen have failed to do, this man hns done in a few weeks. The Budapest correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian” reports that with the coming of tho Stinnes interests all Austrian industry has begun to revive from its comatose state. The agricultural machinery works, hitherto held up for lack of iron and steel, are restarting, and tho suffering districts of Central and South-East-ern Europe will once more be able to obtain machinery for the cultivation of their fields. Recent messages have announced activity by Herr Stinnes in Russia. A great part of German industry is already directly in his grasp, and now the tentacles of the Stinnes trust are beginning to stretch far and wide over Europe. The collapse of Russia and the break up of Austria-Hungary into warring, bankrupt States, are prominent among the causes of the present worldwide depression in trade. Their revival under the domination of a colossal German trust is a distinct possibility, and not a pleasant one.

An old-time follower of tho Rugby game was asked by a young enthusiast after yesterday’s Possibles v. Probables match who he would pick out of the forwards for the big representative team. Here was his answer: "You could put the sixteen names in a hat and draw out eight, and it would not matter which eight you drew„ It would be a really first-class set of forwards.” That about sums up the position. There was very little to choose between them. With the backs, however, it is quite another matter. How any group of selectors could leave out Roberts on his play and experience is a conundrum which will bo discussed to-day in football circles in a manner calculated to set tingling the ears of those who have made this blunder. It is said, and not without some truth, that Roberts is given to individual "stunting." So is almost every player of individuality, originality, and genius for the game. It is the player who occasionally breaks away from the orthodox, who keeps his opponents guessing, and opens the way to tho unexpected break through that means so much in a tight game. But however he is taken, Roberts is a quite exceptional player, clever, elusive, tricky, full of resource, dangerous in attack, and sound in defence. Also, his place-kicking is an asset to any team. If, however, Roberts was passed over becauso of his tendency to individual effort, how doos Steele come to find a place in the team? In the first spell of yesterday’s match, every time the ball came to him he played for his own hand and generally made a mess of things. In the second spell he did better, but on his present form he is a risky experiment, his one redeeming feature being that he is a strong runner when he does manage to avoid fumbling the ball and got a clear break away. The team selected is on the whole a strong one and should bo capable of giving a good account of itself against our South African visitors. It is doubtful, however, if there are many followers of the game outside the selectors who will regard the backs as the best possible choice.