The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6th, 1923. THE WEEK.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 October 1923, Page 2

The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6th, 1923. THE WEEK.

lx i lie tkoiiehC toi tile luces le-da% there Is comment on (lie failure el 1 1 aditiomiI dispioinaey in the matter tl "firld politics. Sir A. .Maurice how, the distinguished Washington t-orres-pondent of tip. •'l.oiidoii Morning I’ost" bus a striking mticlo in tl’.e “New Volk Times” in which (sues ‘‘Puls lie Opinion'-’'. In- point- out one of the most remarkable results of the war—that diplomacy is now passing out of tile hands nf diplomats and politicians and into the hand- of men trained in business. "During the early day- of the wav. when Doom was not in Ihe Kaiser's picture, a mytliienl story amused the U.utoiilo capitals," says Sir Maurice l.iw. “William, viewing the war won and sneering al British and French military inefficiency, vowed that one nf the peace feints would he to compel the British to take over the charge of (human diplomacy. British diplomacy was superb, bill when the Kaiser saw where (iornian diplomacy led he raved even more than usual, and stopped only when he had exhausted all the adjectives which are not fit. lo print The war did n. lot of sin raising and unpleasant things, hut nothing more surprising than when it smashed two of Kurope’s most choi-r-hod traditions. It gave a black eye to diplomacy and the professional diplomat. It pulled the statesman front his pinnacle and revealed him the pis lilieian.

■‘lt mi. the European tradition tli.it government. which is statesmanship, mis a tiling so wonderful anti fearful Unit it coulil In' mastered only by the low; Hum wcie destined ny a mysterious Fnr, id-enee to li<> statesmen tts flio vestal virgins were destined to ljo the guardians cf the saerod fire. In England, despite reform bills, thy enlargement of the franchise, tile reduction of property t|tialiliea| ions, tin' tradition was maintained. The business of tlovernment "as the business of the '•left, who always pretended that the htisine.SK horeil them, mitl they would much rather he shooting or hunting or playing cricket than sitting in the House of Commons or signing their names to letters and dispatches written bv their subordinates. The elect siviitieed themselves and enjoyed it, and formed a close corporation— and, on the whole, did their work well, if not always wisely and were honest, and had the interests of the empire at heart when they did foolish things- iind the unelect looked on and were content. The mysteries were not for them. No 'Englishman of the great middle class ever thought that the Government was a very simple affair. On the contrary, he imagined it was much more complex than it teally is. he liked that figure of the weary Titan, and he hud a good deal of respect for his governors, whom he accepted largely on faith.

“Thk war defied precedent. It has always been accepted as an historical truth that a great emergency produce.' the man. It is one of the curious things about the greatest conflict in history that the war brought no hitherto unknown man to the front. I am 10ferring, of course, to the field of statesmanship: of the battlefield I am no less competent to speak. There was no voting officer to find a Field .Marshal's baton in his belongings as did thatyoung artilleryman at Toulon in the last years of the eighteenth century. Neither at the council table nor on the field did the hitherto obscure man reveal himself as the genius of his time, or as the one of whom great things could be predicted. There were many men who did excellent work, hut it was not brilliant enough to raise them above the general level. Mas the work of such a character that individual accomplishment, similar to the processes of modern industrialism, lost its identity and became merged in phe finished product? It is perhaps

an interesting speculation. Equally curious that from the beginning to the end of the war it was in the control of old men. either old in years or old in service. It was the same in all countries; among 11 i t . Entente as well as the Central Cowers.

“T iikiik was no i’itt with the insolence f, f genius and youth to declare; ‘I place much dependence i n my new cob leagues; | place stdl more do] endenee on myse!!.' Crime .Ministers and Foreign .Ministers brought to their tasks the experience that years bring; veterans 1011;; retired were called hack into service, who displayed the same caution, the same dislike of the new and the untried, the same respect for form and precedent that is characteristic of the official hardened in the official mould. It perhaps explains why the war dragged and the inertia of the official mind hampered the new men to whom achievement was more important than the refinement of red tape. The promising young man, long under the eye of his superiors, will), in fiction would have brought to the tempered prudence of Ills seniors his enthusiasm, audacity ami ingenuity, was igno:ed. 'I-ere were exceptions, of course, hut they are comparatively low. One recalls Lawrence, the most romantic figure of tlie war; hut ] am dealing in generalities and not with rare instances. What we might have expected during the war, or quickly following tin conclusion of peace, wo arc now seeing, nearly live years after the armistice. The old order, if it lias not gone, is at least in temporary eclipse. There i* a reaction against the old typo.

‘■|N England we have lkiidwin alien we might have had Ciirzoii. and undoubtedly would have had him if ltdImd been HUH and not 102:1. A lot of rubbish was published at the time ot Hoiiar Law's roiircinent of the King having passed o\er v'lil/.oii in l.ivoiir of Baldwin because lie loimcr was di-likcd by ilie I.about Party- Whit! l . i- about as sound a reason as a ltepuhliran president ignoring the outstanding man in ids emu pally 1< ■ e a |in-i in the Cabinet because 1 lie D' - mo; rats do not like. him. Curznn was passed over not because of Labour opposition. Inn iieeaiis, tile Con-el vat I'c Hartv. v. idle still conserve 11v. ■ Inis broken from ils tradition. It is a significant sign of file tinn-s. In tiermany we liadt uiio. and 111 Italy Mu.su lim. fi is not only that they arc unknown men. the discoveries ot the lostwar period, but tiny bear no lescinbla nee to the Prime Minister of European tradition or tile p’l'eneb stage. I hey have no background of political ii.e. tin long experience in statesmanship: tho,\ were not brought up from youth to lie tile rulers of their peoples.

“Hu. owin’ belongs to this group; the bil-ines- man rather than the statesman; le.-s the politician than the man of altairs, to whom party is a res|c:tuhl,. institution, hut not a fetish. Contrast these men -till engaged in lIn" seemingly oii-'lvahie problem ol the reparations with tics Prime Ministers who -at around the table and posed the problem without considering tilt* solution, and could there ho a mo;e striking contrast ? I 'crimps wo may expect Lloyd Ceorge, but lie is an anomaly in. English polities. Something more than a label is required to hold 'men to their puty allegiance. WTinl is loosely and carelessly talked a! out as dissatisfaction with the holder 't an office, his methods or policies, is tin* conviction that although a man may bate spent many years in public service, il does not necessarily tollotv that otiler men laimot he ioiiud even more competent. There is a widespread longing for new men and new ideas. We may. ! think, lim! lim cause deeply rented. Ti'e war taught ] Copies tunny things. Imt untiling so impressively as the fiction of wisdom. W'e took too much for granted. We believed implicitly in tlie myths and legend' ol the great, of their prescience and powers of dit illation. The war came -uid I lasted more than one reputation I' siio|l>ed the great of their uitiiorms and robes am! revealed them prophets 01 straw” com lodes Sir Maurice. Lea.

Xotiii.nc sti ikiiiglv indicates what tlu> lm]K'riiil Conference. mow sitting, means sis tin 1 interest it lias aroused in foioign capitals. The spectacular reception of tin.- visit in*; delegates in l.ninlun, says 11H* Christchurch “Press", s onlil have ls'eii foreseen; wliat was mil her fore-ecn ii.nr imagined though it is so logical —is the feeling of stls|;ense in Washington nml across Ininqe in Tokyo. If proof wore iei|lliiotl of the prestige of the British Kinpire. it is in the tlsiily ctihles. lint "li(‘ii we turn to the impression iniule mi Rritmis themselves ■ especially as it is revealed in the great British ncvspapei s - the arrestin': fail i> an earnest bewilderment. "The Times." is ohielly aware of eeoiunnie issues, ol the neeessity of escaping from eeononiie dcI'emlenee on foreign ciiniit I ies, and of the opportunity presented of promoting Imperial unity. The ‘'Daily Express” tinds nothing so impintnnt it. the problem of unemployment: if tho Conferences fail to solve that they tail wholly, the “Ex press" says, nml n believes that solution lies Mono the path which loads most rapidly trom Europe. Other papers feel primarily the constitutional siguilictinec oi these meetings, and their attitude is given a strange solemnity, by a sermon from the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. But it must not he forgotten that the Conference is | rimarily practical.

\Viti-'.tiitilt Cardimil Bourne gees too lar iu saying that its members are faced by ‘ an issue without pieccdetit in human history." or tln> "Sunday Express" not far enough in urging delegates to drop idle talk and get to •work oa the unemployed, it i- certain that unemployment i• • 11<• t is one ol the big tasks. An empire un remain 1 rosperolls while half of it dies out lor people, and in the other half hundreds of thousands of people eiy out for work and bread. Some means must be found for removing that anomaly, and it is impossible to imagine even the political conference discussing dotem-e ami the constitution without reteronee to the iJistrihution of pc : pn In t ion. DelellCO will, of ionise, come up for discussion, though its problems are comparatively simple. So lar a“ New Zealand is eonconictl. we have long since made up our minds that "hid the Admiralty advises technically "e shall accept politically and financially. Nor is it lik«»lv that even tile constittitional issue “the uniting in one great Commonwealth under a single constitutional luonarth oi «i iMiniiK*r oi iuitonoinoiis so ruing nat ions will orcu].\ as miieli time in faet as in theniy it seems to demand.

TIIF.UK have been occasions when it has not been possible to think cheerful!} of these discussions, or to see how tliey could lie carried on usefully and safely. But that is not the position to-day. Academically. General Smuts may push independence further than .Mr Bruce, and Mr Mackenzie King a great deal further than Mr Mas-'ey. but in practice neither one school nor the other will ask for changes distillling to the Empire's unity. It is to i’unexpected rather that they will come away with a new understanding but with the same old inaehinety (or lack of it*. The dangerous questions are the economic ones—more prefeicnce or less, quicker emigration or slower, a selfcontained or a dependent Empire. It is when we think of these, even more than when we ask how to build a con-

stitutionnl framework without support or model in history, that l 'we ought to be filled with compassion for those who have to lead the world at the present time.”