MR. MASSEY.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 September 1921, Page 5

MR. MASSEY.

HIS WORK IN LONDON. CONFERENCE AND OTHER BUSINESS. London, July 19. The Imperial Conference delegates during the past week have been busy chiefly at meetings of special committees, to which various subjects have been referred. What with the work of the conference and of the special committees, the Prime Minister of New Zealand has been kept as busy as ever. His working hours are longer than in New Zealand. The loan negotiations are out of the way, but shipping freights, wool and market affairs take up a great deal of his time. Be has also devoted much attention to the question of New Zealand’s share of the German reparations. His negotiations have been conducted with the Chancellor and the Treasury. A gathering, or conference, of New Zealand shippers and producers of frozen meat and produce, and of shipping company representatives, which Mr. Massey himself convened, was held early one morning to enable the Prime Minister to attend the Imperial Conference at 11 o’clock. The shipping companies were informed by the producers of the impossibility of shipping being continued unless freights were reduced, and the shipping people in turn said they were losing money. A committee of representatives of both sides was set up to discuss, firstly, freights and the possibility of meeting the situation, and ofccondly, to consider the practicability of a permanent committee to deal with shipping and freight matters. The committee might be set up either in London or New Zealand. No report of its decisions has yet been made.

Special honor was conferred upon Mr. Massey by the British Empire Producers’ Association in inviting him to be the guest of the association at its luncheon at the Hotel Victoria on Thursday last. The attendance was the largest the association has had at its luncheons for many years. A considerable number of New Zealanders, many of whom were attending the association’s annual conference, were present. Mr. Massey’s reception was ven;’ hearty, the applause which greeted him being loud and sustained. Ho was in excellent form and spoke vigorously on Empire matters, particularly in regard to commercial and industrial affairs. He predicted amongst other things that as a fall in the world’s flocks of 20 per cent, in the last ten years was shown, the demand for wool and mutton must soon overtake the available supply, and that producers could accept this grain of comfort in these times of low prices. The speech was frequently applauded. The Press generally gave Mr. Massey’s remarks much prominence.

A number of other invitations to speak at public functions were declined by the Prime Minister, who has found it a physical impossibility to comply with all. The same has applied to social functions.

The British Press gave prominence to congratulations to Mr. Massey upon his successful completion of his ninth year of office as Prime Minister. Some of the larger papers published personal sketches, and most of the provincial journals also had their paragraphs. Tn London pictorials was published a photograph of Mr. Massey receiving the congratulations of Mr. Lloyd George, which an enterprising photographer had secured.

On July 10 the Prime Minister and Mrs. and Miss Massey were the guests at Chequers (Buckinghamshire), of Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd George, where, with other overseas guests, they spent a very pleasant time. At the latter place the Prince of Wales was present. On July 11 the party dined at the Carlton Hotel with the Indian conference delegates and the Secretary of State for India. On July 13 they were the guests of Viscountess Astor, the Duke of Connaught being present, and on July 14 dined with the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace.