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Hokitika Guardian, 19 March 1920, Page 2

At last thprp is an officiaj a/inouneement jn respect to t)ie completion of the Otira tunnel works, Air 11. WHolmes, Chief Engineer, aijtl recently appointed Under Secretary of Publjc Works, states it is expected that the tunnel will be completed in about eighteen months, and a makeshift electrical plant is to be ready contemporaneously. This sets the end of the year 1921 as the time for through traffic. The Public Works Department has woke up at last, and is putting its shoulder to the wheel. The new Minister of l'ublic Works is not in harness yet, and it would appear that Sir William Fraser has anticipated the advent of the Hon. J. G. Coates to office, by taking a step which should have been taken at least two or three years ago to speed up the works. One can but marvel and wonder at the procrastination of tho Department, not only in regard to tho lack of effort to speedup, but also in the dilatory manner in which the indispensible electrical supply had been [ handled. This was an outstanding necessity all along, and why there should ho the delay, and the putting off to the last moment the order of the steam plant is beyond comprehension. Even now there is the risk of further delay and it is conceivable that in the end there will he a further pause waiting for the electric plant to turn

up in some sort of haphazard wnv. When Hon. Contes stops into office it is to be hoped tie will not take matters for granted, but will see for himself that everything possible is being done to speed up the works. Every week gained means thousands of pounds to the country directly and indirectly, and there is to-day no more urgent public work calling for completion than the | linking up of the East and West Coast 'railway systems

It was pointed out in the cable nows yesterday that even yet there is the prospect of a. treaty ratification by the United States. In fact, more than a prospect, an actual probability if President Wilson cares to act diplomatically in the matter. The famous article 10 of the Peace Treaty has been j forestalled by Senator Uodgo’s substi(tuto reservation, find it is assumed that

the vote tlieron indicates that at leust two-thirds of the Senate want the Trea- I ty ratified. This is good news, and if '• the great parties are as sincere about the business, the adoption of the treaty could come rapidly. It is for Mr Wilson to handle tho Democrats as adroitly as Mr 'Lodge appears to have handled the Republicans, and the end would be achieved. There are signs that a ' great stigma will attach to the United States if she declines to ratify the ■ teace Treaty, in the moulding of which Mr Wilson was given a dominating voice. The United States is in honor bound to follow up what her representatives did in Europe, and if she treats the word of her peace delegates as something of nought; the action will be no less than akin to Germany’s disregard of the scrap of paper at the crucial period of the war. The securing of peace is as important now as was the justification for war at the time, and if a great nation -like the United States is to ignore the .part of her statesmen in framing the peace treaty it will undermine the whole fabric of

international intercourse, and nave a very bad impression world-wide as to the value of Uncle Sam’s word in matters of great moment.