The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The ECho. THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 2, 1926. THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 208, 2 September 1926, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The ECho.

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 2, 1926. THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

j For the couee that iackt assistance. I For the tcrong that needs resistance, j For the fit-ture im the dielwnce, ! A.nd the good that ice can do.

Last month the Premier made a state- " ment to the House regarding the agenda to be submitted to the coming Imperial Conference. Yesterday he returned to this question, covering most of the ground that the Conference i? expected Ito traverse, and expressing Lie views thereon. In a genera] sense, we believe that Mr. Coatee will find tLat the country, like Parliament, will endorse his views, and he test rest assured that he goes to the Conference backed by a full measure of public confidence and sup- : portIt max sound a little ungracious to offer criticism at this juncture, but we still regret that the Premier's departure J should be held to necessitate, the closing ' j down of Parliament. We agree that, all things considered, the Prime Minister should officially represent the Dominion at such Imperial gatherings. But we entirely fail to see why Parliament cannot get on with its business satisfactorily during his absence. As thinz? are. I the ■work of what should be a long 1 session is packed into two or three i months, to the detriment of sound legislation—to say nothing of tae health i of members—and after this the duties of Parliament are arbitrarily suspended i till the Premiers return. Either way the ', country suffers, and in our opinion such 1 inconvenience and injury ehould not be • allowed to recur. ' To come now to Mr. Coate;' niission-. jit seems to us that he is approaching the discussion of Imperial affairs in an entirely right and commendable spirit. He desires to maintain New Zealand's traditional policy which haE always i been directed towards the great end of j maintaining and consolidating the unity of our TLmpire. He is not prepared to ' regard the Dominions as autonomous and independent States if this means that Dominion claims are to interfere . with the paramount authority of Britain on Imperial questions. And as to foreign policy the Premier is prepared as far as possible to follow Britain's lead, reserving always the Dominion's right to dissent in the last resort from . any given line of action in regard to external affairsIt is perhapE inevitable that such a declaration of faith in Britain aDd the Empire should evoke a certain amount • of criticism; and Mr. Holland made the best possible use of his opportunity from the standpoint of party politics. The Leader of the Labour party objects in the first place to the suggestion that New Zealand may be forced to follow i Britain to war once moTe against either ; France or Germany. At the same time he insists that the Prime Minister ought to attend the Conference as a delegate bearing definite instructions from Parliament regarding all the more important topics that appear in the lift of agenda. ] A very useful corrective to Mr. 1 Holland's insinuations and implications was Eupplied by the Hon. W. D. Stewart. As to the proposal for the representation of the Opposition at the Conference, the Minister pointed out that this step ■would virtually deprive Parliament of its right of subsequent criticism. As to the danger of war. Mr. Stewart very neatly countered Mr. Holland's warning • with the reminder that, if Britain went ,to war on her own account, enemy nations would fail to draw Mr. Holland's fine distinctions, but would treat New Zealand as British and-would attack it accordingly. Incidentally. Mr. Stewart finally exploded the fallacy of ''Dominion Statehood 7, by reference to the dictum \of Sir John Salmond, which is now accepted everywhere as authoritative. On the whole, the debate did a great deal to clear the air. and no doubt it has helped our Prime Minister to clarify his views and give his intentions more definite shape and form than before. Aβ to the problems of inter-Imperial trade, immigration, Imperial communications, and such matters of national , defence and foreign policy as the Singa- . pore base and the Locarno Treaty, it . seems impracticable for Parliament to tie the Premier's hands with definite instructions in advance. . All that we can do now is to accept Mr. Coates' assurance that he will do all in his power to support and promote the ■ solidarity of our Empire—and reserve to ourselves the right of criticism in detftji on.