MR. HUGHES' EMPHATIC REPLY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 269, 11 November 1918, Page 6

MR. HUGHES' EMPHATIC REPLY.

TERMS SETTLED AND DOMINIONS NOT CONSULTED. {"(Received 1.30 p.m.) LONDON", November 10. Mr. Hughes, interviewed by the Australian Press Association, stated that the rigmarole issued by the Bureau was entirely beside the point. The War Cabinet discussions were merely academic and general, and they had not even considered the fourteen points. The position is now entirely changed. We are right up again*!, peace, and find the ternw definitely settled, and the Dominion claims they won at the Peace Council table. Mr. Lloyd neorge, speaking nt the (iuildhall, said: "We must not forget what we owe our sturdy overseas children. Their share in victory is conspicuous, and they must have a voic |ual to their sacrifices. Nothing was done at Versailles to preclude ns from pressing, a* we intend to do, all the Dominion claim they won at the Peace Council table. Mr. \V. M. Hughes, the Federal Premier, informed the Australian Press Association that there was nothing in Mr. Lloyd freorge's speech that affected the position he (Mr. Hughes) was contending for. He emphatically re-allirmed that terms were settled without consultation of the Dominions. Sir C. O. Wade. Agent-General for N.S.W., says that the British Government should immediately declare it will insist on the non-restoration of the German colonies, and suggests an immediate protest from Australia against anything in that direction. The "Westminster Gazette," commenting on the absence of Dominion representatives from the Versailles Conference, says that someone seems to have blundered badly, but hopes no attempt will be made to blow up the incident into a serious slight to the Dominions. The Government should admit frankly that there was an oversight on all points of substance. Mr. Hughes was clearly calling out before he was hurt. President Wilson's fourteen points were not a precise poHcy, and before they were embodied in any document there will be ample opportunity for expression of all tho views of the Dominions.— (A. and N-Z. Cable.)