THE PEACE CONFERENCE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10612, 10 June 1920, Page 8

THE PEACE CONFERENCE

DANCES AND CHAMPAGNE. “RECKLESS EXTRAVAGANCE." •It was notorious throughout the cotuS try that the Government had been reok< lessly extravagant in running the Peaosf Conlerence. So said Captain Stanley Wilson in thq House of Commons in criticising J.h«t item of -£120,000 in connection with th«| vote for diplomatic and. Consular ings. j Sir F. Banbury complained that after, five years of war we ought not to havs( spent this sum in making a show in! Paris. ' He noticed that the estimate included! "other expenses incidental to the British delegation to the Peace Conference." Did; that cover the champagne and that they had road of? j Ho should have thought the delegate* would have dona better to have gone tq bed and thought over the peace tcrquH (Laughter.) j Sir A. Mond explained that for the purposes of the Peace Conference it wa* necessary tu mbs over five hotels. The Government undoubtedly did the thing very well—(ironical cheers) —but it was also dona with extreme care. ■ His department was not responsible fo t the food or th© clothes of the typists, o\ the dunces or the champagne. An hon. member. Who was? Sir A. Mond: The Food, Minister* (Laughter.) Colonel Wcdgcwood asserted that th* total cost of the Paris Conference to th.lt country would bo nearer two ailllui} pounds than ,2220,000.