BELATED DECISION

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 246, 8 June 1932, Page 4

BELATED DECISION

It has been justly said that the man with an unchangeable mind is an unchangeable ass, and the eoimtry as a whole will approve Mr. Forbes' somewhat belated decision to withdraw from the Ottawa deiegation and devote his attention to the increasingly difficult and serious domestic sitnation. Not only has Mr. Forbes definitely withdrawn, but it is also plainly indicated from a special message published this morning, that Mr. Coates proposes to follow his colleague's example, leaving the Minister of Finance, Hon. W. Downie Stewart, to carry the burden of this Dominion's Ministerial representations at the Conference. It is, to say the least, refreshing to discover that the Prime Minister is amenable to such human frailty as a change of mind. Previously he has shown more than a disposition towards a strong man attitude which, as we have onee before remarked, could be aptly terminated with the oratorial conclusion, "behold, I have spoken." However that may be, the grave and complex problems of which Mr. Forbes speaks in his announcement were no less grave and complex when the deiegation was formed, and it is pertinent to speculate just to what extent the Government's front has been altered by the unanimous public protest which its first announcement aroused. As we have already pointed out, the original proposal to send the three most important members of Cabinet abroad during a time of grave naI tional difficulty was indefensible, and it is apparently only after } the public protest has filtered through, that Mr. Forbes has decided to adopt the course which should have been taken from the very beginning. The country fully realises the importance of the conference and the issues which it will consider, but that does not alter the fact that this Dominion will be adequately reprej sented by one competent Minister carrying with him a definite ! i policy and the necessary material to support . and supplement 1 such a policy. The country will agree with Mr. Forbes that af- j | f airs at Home demand the presence of its Prime Minister ; the i only pity is that it required a public outcry to impress the fact j upon the Prime Ministerial consciousness.