WEAK POLICIES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 128, 22 January 1932, Page 6

WEAK POLICIES

VISITOR FROM ENGLAND CRIITICISES BRITISH SENTIMENTALISM. LEADERS LACK BACKBONE. Both at Home and abroad, British policy is suffering from the canker of sentimentalism — an ailment which was regarded as serious by Mr. William Martin, of Surrey, England, a retired lawyer, who arrived in "Wellington by the Tainui from Southampton. In its attitude to India and its j own domestic problems, Mr. Martin said, Britain's leaders lack the firmness essential at the present time. The dole and pension systems need a drastic overhaul, but politicians are slow to move. j "English politicians!" he exclaimed. "One doesn't seem to know what to make of them. The trouble appears to me to be want of backbone. In fact, my own view is that there is a great deal too much sentimentalism in British policy in regard to India. It seems to me weak as well as unpractical in every sense of the word. To talk of local government for a place like India with a mixed population is absurd. It cannot -be done, • But events have moved in a rather different fashion recently, and it is a comfort to see the way things are now going. It makes one glad to see^ that Lord Irwin is not in office at the present time. If he had been, it is my opinion that this firm action would not have been taken. There is too much sloppy sentimentalism just now." "What Conference Showed. Continuing, Mr. Martin said that he did not think India would ever be fit for self-government, at least unless and until the nature of the population and its distribution was completely altered. Then again the Mohammedans were not going to put up with the Hindus. Mohammedans, it had been shown, were far more useful to the British, taken all round, and | were better citizens than the Hindus j under a British regime. They seemed to have more sense. The Round Table Conference, ineffectual as it had been, had done one good thing: it had opened the eyes of the people to the absolutely impossible nature of most of the proposals. Speaking of domestic conditions, Mr. Martin said that this general lack of decisiveness had manifested itself at Home also. Firmpess was needed. Communists had been allowed too much scope altogether and had received tolerance to a dangerous degree.

Main Trouble Defined. 'We know what a true economic policy requires," eontinued Mr. Martin, "and you cannot fly in the face of economic rules without bringing trouble to yourself. At Home we have 'been encouraging non-produc-tive expenditure — and that's the whole of our trouble. We have been simply throwing money away. This insurance business and the dole will have to be immensely modified. We ihought the elections would have some sffect; although I can quite see why they don't want to do it now. However, it will have to come, Even now the dole is greatly in excess of what "t should be. Besides, a very large percentage of it is abused. In my orofession one is perhaps in a better oosition than most-to study the ways 3f the people, -and I can tell you it has jeen astonisning to find how quickly :he lower classes see the chance of a .egal fraud.

"One very curious case that came jo my notice was that of an old wonan who had a lot of property. For :ome time she had been making it iway to her daughter. Then she vent and bought another property, jut did not tell us any thing about it. vVe thought she was buying it for her;elf. She came to us, however, and ,aid that it was for her daughter also. vVe suggested to her that she was loing a foolish thing in giving all her moperty to her daughter. In reply ihe said she could trust her daughter, md when she had given all her property away she could qualify for an pld-age pension. That is just a case n point. Mr. Martin said that on the present Irip he was hoping "to forget business and everything else for a bit." Al.hough he had retired at the end of a ong experience, he still found there was work for him to do. He will ;tay in New Zealand for perhaps >even weeks, and will continue his ; our ney then to Australia, going Home >y way of the Cape, and -arriving back rn May.