The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 1916. BRITAIN’S BENIGHTED POLICY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 82, 5 April 1916, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 1916. BRITAIN’S BENIGHTED POLICY.

(With which is incorporated The Tai hape Post and Waimarino News.)

The war has already brought many changes in our social) and political thought and action. To-day there are thousands of people in New Zealand and elsewhere who are heartily applauding Mr. Hughes, the Commonwealth Premier, who scornfully laughed and jeered at Sir Joseph Ward for stating the same, facts and opinions, and giving the same warnings in sentences of almost precisely similar construction. Mr. Hughes said, just the other day: “The Empire does not exist, as some seem to think, for Great Britain alone. The Overseas Dominions, which are- all in all, and have a name os independent nations, have vast territories undeveloped, and great interests to consider.” In 1911, at the Imperial Conference, in London, Sir Joseph Ward, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, then said: “The Empire has now reached a stage of Imperial development which renders it expedient that there should he an Imperial Council of State with represen tatives from all the constituent parts of the Empire, whether self-governing or not, in being and, in fact, advisory to the Imperial Government on all questions affecting the interests of His Majesty’s Dominions overseas.” It is exactly the same case, perhaps less ostentatiously and egotistically put, but the same nevertheless. It, is proper that New Zealanders should ponder over issues of this kind, because it matters not by what shibboleth of politics a statesman is known, no party can be less loyal and patriotic to thedr country in willingly opening their eyes to what is for the development and advancement of the whole body politic. Unfortunately,i self and party interests do not always sychronise with what is in the best interests of a people, and we find, as in the present case, that many leaders in Great Britain, in Australia, and in New Zealand, in 3911, discredited a proposal that would most probably have worked out a preparedness for this war, if not prevented it altogether, which today they acclaim and accept from the Australian Premier. It is so easy to be wise after the event, but we should, at least, give credit to Sir Joseph Ward for advocating the change while there was yet time to avert a world-wide catastrophe. New Zealanders have rather a tendency to belittle their own statesmen while being ready to applaud men of other countries for doling out their ideas second-hand. Mr. Hughes admits that the question of giving the Dominions a voice in the future councils of the Empire cannot well be settled under the present stress of circumstances, but, he says, “it is not too soon to raise it,” as though it were something quite new, something that a New Zealander had not only raised, but also proposed and urged in an Empire Conference, with a force and determination that nothing Mr. Hughes now says can overshadow. Sir Joseph Ward said: “I prefer to have a voice individually, even when I am in a minority of one. I prefer to have that voice and to recognise that my conn-

worth rather than not have a voice at all.” That the representative of onr Dominion had in his mind at that time c what the preparations and intentions of Germany then signified, is conclusively proved to us in these words; “We - should have an important and effective organisation created which would allow all portions of our British Empire to review what is necessary for the preservation of themselves and the protection of all parts of it, on sea as well as on land.” We. could go on quoting columns that would prove the New Zealand Premier's prescience, aye, almost prophetic vision, of what was so soon to happen, and we cannot help thinking that it is poetic justice that his country should he the one in all the Empire to suffer least from the consequences of laxity or lack of organisation and comprehensive consideration, while the Motherland, who then rejected and belittled the warning note that was struck is now welcoming with open arms, is suffering most. Let us not be too ready to accept any political shibboleth; we shall profit more by thinking for ourselves, and we need never begrudge to any statesman, no matter what his political colour may be, that credit .and cons;r.oration his services may be worth to us. If the foresight of Sir Joseph Ward had had no bearing on British party strife, it would have sunk deeper into the minds of Bfitish statesmen. However, the men that laughed in 1911 are more than ready in 1916 to seek Sir Joseph Ward’s counsel.