The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY, 31, 1912. BRITAIN'S FOREIGN RELATIONS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 31, 31 January 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY, 31, 1912. BRITAIN'S FOREIGN RELATIONS.

Mi- Sidney Low contributes an article to the > “Fortnightly Review,” in which he advocates thq bsthblisbmeht of a ~Cioiumitten of Foreign Affair?. There; might be; one for House of Commons and one for the' House 1 of Lords, he says, but probably the better arrangement would bo to form a joint, committee selected from the two Houses. The committee should be a small one, say twenty members, of whom twelve might be chosen from the Lower Chamber and eight from the Upper, ,It, would . , include,,, ,of course, members of liotH parties, and could be appointed not;for the, session but fori the, duration;, of I the Parliament. It would not be in any sense an executive boc|y ) that is to say, it would not be supposed to take the conduct of foreign affairs out of the hands of the Cabinet. ■ -Its functions would be to advise, to discuss, to investigate, and generally to act as the eyes and cars of Parliament where its particular department was concerned. The Cabinet would be under no compulsion to adopt the views of the Foreign Affairs Committee. But when Ministers differed from the Committee they would do so under a grave souse of responsibility, for they would have the full knowledge that this weighty little council, composed, of the most competent and influential privatf members of both Chambers, was against them. And Parliament and the country would have more confidence if they knew that the intricate and mysterious recesses (necessarily mysterious as far as the mass of the public is concerned) of the most critical department of the State had been explored by a comparatively impartial and reasonably well-informed body of investigators. Mr Low also suggests that no treaty or convention with a foreign- Government should take effect until it has been ratified by Parliament.

THE STRIKE.

“ The strike is a two-edged sword. I hose who glibly advocate its use arc frequently those who will not suffer from its thrust. Those who have suffered by its thrust are cautious of its employment. It should never bo asod as a weapon of offence. Its use can only be justified when all legitimate remedies have failed; when patience has lost limit; when diplomacy aas been exhausted. Only intolerable conditions can legitimati.se its operation. To make war upon a community on a pretext of injustice is to commit a crime. To inflict an injury in order to sustain a principle is to court defeat.” On this wise statement the N ./. “Times” builds as follows, referring, of course, to the threatened tramway strike:—lt is exceedingly improbable, that any but a fractional number of the members of the Wellington Tramway Union know what a strike actually means—have had any personal knowledge of the demoralisation and economic loss invariably attendant upon such a conflict. We are not among those who would willingly see Labour abandon, voluntarily or through coercion, its right to strike, and have, therefore, never been able to support those dubious schemes for accomplishing this end which have, from time to time, been

advanced by flustered politicians. 'Vo believe that personal freedom, oven though it may on occasion be abused, ■is a possession too precious for barter, and that only the enemies of Labour would seek to encumber its privileges by placing a halter and hobble upon the existing rights of the working man in combination. It is, however, one thing to urge tho Labour unions to retain their freedom in this respect, and quite another to counsel resort to use of the strike. That should only be done in cases of tho gravest emergency. The dispute in which tho Wellington City Council and the 1 ramwav Union have become embroiled can afford no pretext for a display of force. . • . "\\ e put it to the lead-

ers of Labour that a strike of tramwaymen now against the people of Wellington—an attempt to penalise evQry resident —wilj alienate from the cause of Labour the sympathies of thousands and make mockery of its political claims and ambitions. The aim of the wisest minds in the movement is to gain tho confidence and support of that great unorganised body of men and women who arc neither politicians nor partisans. To attack this section of society, to paralyse a great public utility, to mutiny against democratic control, is to induce permanent distrust, to give every thinking man and. woman sound reason for turning in resentment from such a faithless betrayal of citizenship. Force should never be employed until all legitimate remedies have been exhausted.