MR. COATES' WARNING

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 620, 26 August 1933, Page 4

MR. COATES' WARNING

Jnst what does Mr. Coates mean by his cryptic warning to the publie that Mr. Forbes' utterances in Ameriea are to be taken cum grano salis? What has the Prime Minister said to cause his coll'eague such anxiety? So far as the people of New Zealand are aware the only defiinite utterances to which Mr. Forbes has committed himself are his endorsement of Mr. Roosevelt's reconstruction plan. On August 19 a Roston message credits the Prime Minister with having expressed "Confidence that President Roosevelt's programme of re-construction will lead the United States, and with it the rest of the civilised world, to prosperity. Mr. Roosevelt is a man engaged in :a great mission." Then again a cablegram from Toronto credits Mr. Forbes with saying : "I think it is a brave attempt to rectify the situation in the United States*. It is all very well to try to cut to pieces a plan like that, bnt what would you do under similar circumstances and what would anybody do?" Are we to take it that these two statements %ave been Tborn of the fertile imagination of the American press or are we to take it that Mr. Coates desires to get in a timely word to counI teract an impression that his j colleague has slipped badly from the policy of drift which has I been the brilliantly-outstanding j feature of the Coalition administration? If Mr. Forbes did not praise the American policy of hustle, and admit that President Roosevelt was engaged upon a "programme of reconstruction which will lead the United States, and with it the rest of the civilised world, to prosperity," then Ke did not earn his salute j of 19 guns on entering Chicago. , If he did say it, and meant it, j he has undoubtedly dropped a spanner of large size into the | works of the Coalition Cabinet. j It is quite conceivable that anxi- ; ety has been aroused in the i breast of the acting-Prime Min- j ister because Mr. Forbes' alleg- ) ed enthusiasm for Mr. Roose- ! velt's plans is strangely at vari- i ance with Mr. Coates consider- i ed, written reply to the Auck- j land deputation which urged : upon the Government the ntil- I isation of the country's credit to carry ,us over thq final stages of the depression. It is not difficult to believe that the cables have been busy during the last. few days and when Mr. Forbes faces Cabinet he may be hard put to .it toexplain why he allowed the 'explosion of a few welcoming guns to dislodge him from his policy of negation.

It is, however, becoming a matter of historical fact that trips abroad work remarkable changes in the politico-economic outlook of onr Ministers. A previous pleasant little jaunt to Europe saw the adoption of Sir Otto Neimeyer as the patron financial saint of New Zealand and it is not at all surprising that Mr. Forbes should return from :his last visit to the temples of high finance with the graven im- ■ age of President Roosevelt ' in his handbag. It is, perchance, a pity he did not visit Germany where Herr Hitler could have given him a few hints on the latest methods of getting rid of undesirable political associates. However if Mr Forbes has started on his journey home with some genuinely-inspired desire. to end the political rot which is strangling his country we can view with equaminity the prospect of his meeting with Mr. Coates on the wharf at Wellington.