The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1916. THE DARDANELLES COMMISSION

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 15, 16 August 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1916. THE DARDANELLES COMMISSION

Exactly what happened prior to the setting up of the Dardanelles Commission by tlie # Imperial Government not known here, but we may conjecture, however, ‘savs the Christchurch Press that having decided upon the Commission the Imperial Government assumed, and were assured by AngloAustralasians, that it would lie wise to give Australasia at least a semiofficial place at the table. The incident is a suggestive one for disinterested students of the larger Imperial problems. It shows how very completely Anglo-Australasians can get out of touch with Australasian opinion. It also shows that the Imperial Government has still got colonial opinion out of focus. To pay excessive deference to colonial opinion through a misunderstanding of that opinion is just as wrong as to pay too little attention to the temper of the colonies. It is( likely, as a rule, to bo an error on the side of safety, but ,it is still an error. The “Westminster Gazette” lias spoken of the attitude of “The Press” in New Zealand and the leading newspapers in Australia as evidence of magnanimity, there would be no great harm if colonial magnanimity were always greater than the people of Britain supposed. But in the Australasian attitude in this matter there was as much policy As magnanimity. There was in it a strong conviction upon how wars should be, or rather should not be, managed.