Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 1917. RETURN OF MR. MASSEY AND SIR JOSEPH WARD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1730, 26 June 1917, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 1917. RETURN OF MR. MASSEY AND SIR JOSEPH WARD.

THE Right Hon. AT, E. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward have safely returned to New Zealand from their important mission to England in lime for the opening of Parliament. They have been absent from the Dominion for nearly a year. A number of misguided and ignorant people have referred to their absence as if it were a holiday jaunt. As the AVcllinglou Post points out, “they are returning from the discharge of a great Imperial mission. They have been representing New Zealand on an occasion which is unique in two respects. Never before was the Empire confronted with such issues as those which have confronted it in the third year of the Great AVar, and never before were Dominion statesmen summoned to take part, not as mere friends or advisors, but as fully privileged members, in the Executive of the Empire. It is impossible lu suppose that our representatives have not had their minds stored and enlarged, their mil look broadened, and their capacity to serve New Zealand and the Empire increased by such an experience. They know much that they did not know before, and they can sec many of the old truths in a new light. Above all, the gravity of the war must bo impressed upon their minds more deeply than ever, and the idea of party strife at such a time must strike them as more closely avc preaching treason than it ever did before. New Zealand may, therefore, welcome the return of its delegates, not merely for the good-will

that it bears them personally, but for the certainly that they will enable it to pursue with greater efficiency the one object which is paramount in everybody's mind the vigorous prosecution of the war and the faithful discharge of the obligations to which we stand committed in the eyes of the Empire and the world.”