MR. NASH'S MISSION

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 54, 5 March 1937, Page 14

MR. NASH'S MISSION

GOOD IMPRESSION. LABOUR AND PUBLICITY. INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS. (By G. COX AND J. A. ML'Lt;AX.) LONDON. January 13. Mr. Xa<h's broadcast speech on Xew Zealand, given some days ago over the 8.8.1 . to Knj:lish listeners.. has aroused considerable interest. Several news-! papers rcprsnted .-eiti-ms of it. particularly 111 •'—e dcaiiug with the minimum w ap.> and pen-ions (inures. which are in e\crv ca-e con»iderai-!y higher than the rate- prevailing here. .Mr. Xash has. j too. .i -rood microphone manner. andj pu:i;:c comment has been very favourable to him. i" 1 om it - publicity value alone," apart altogether from his other work. Mr. Na-ii s v i-it here Ls proving very >ani.iiile. Since J-abour came to power in Xew Zealand there has been plenty of day-to-day news about its work, but I very few general articles explaining' what is actually happening in Xew Zea- j land, how far the (iovernmeiit is or is Hot carrying out its programme, and what tiie reactions (if the people are to its work. Indeed, a great part, if not the majority of people in the United Kingdom, do not know- that Xew Zealand has a Labour Government. Mr. Xash. in speeches, interviews and articles, is doing a great deal to till this gap. Last week-end, for instance he addressed the Raleigh Club, one of' tlie principal discussion groups at Oxford, to which belong experts on Empire affairs who are from time to time called in b\ Whitehall for advice on Imperial matters. The effect of a meeting like this, is much greater than that of many larger public meetings at which the mass of people may be without direct influence in affairs of the Dominions. Mr. Xash was cross-questioned with that thoroughness which characterises the criticisms of most Oxford undergraduates of visiting speakers, and came through with colours flying. Unfavourable Reports. The question of securing "a good Press"' in (Jreat Britain for its work is one the Labour movement in Xew Zealand will soon have to face, for tlie general impression which visitors from Xew Zealand to this country tend to spread is unfavourable to Labour. True, the main reason for this may be that the Xew Zealanders who have money enough for a trip to England belong to that section of the community which is more concerned with the rise in income tax than in wage levels. But some of the information which makes its way here might surprise Xew Zealand. To-day, for instance, we lunched with two people from India who had travelled home on the same ship as a prominent English industrialist returning from a visit to New Zealand. The chief thing they remembered from his conversation was that the Xew Zealand Government had five men in its ranks who had been in prison. That {Solitical views might have brought them there, and that Hitler, Mussolini. the president of Czechoslovakia and a number of prominent British politicians had all seen the inside of prisons for the same reason, the industrialist did not add. Our friends were under the impression that the Government benches were tenanted by a group of ex-burglars. Germany and Colonies. Czechoslovakia has suddenly sprung into the headlines this week. Germany, so reports from France allege, is stirring up another rising there, just as she aided General Franco's rising in Spain. She is doing this, according to one view, as a means of blackmailing Britain about colonies. "If you don't give us our colonies back, well go ahead and see that a revolution starts in CzechoSlovakia, in which we will 'intervene' (not openly, but to the accompaniment of loud denials) as in Spain. And you know that that means a risk of war with Czechoslovakia's ally, France. 'So if you want to avoid war. you will have to give us back our colonies," would be a summary of their argument in this esse. Meanwhile, the propaganda campaign for a return of German colonies is going on apace. British opinion on the whole is solidly opposed to returning an inch of mandated territory to Germany. One line of argument is that if Germany wants the raw materials from these former colonies, they are open for her to buy. The only reason why she does not buy them now is because she is using every penny she has to spare for arinaments. If we give her back her former colonies, we simply aid her in increasing the armaments, which are already the chief threat to the peace of Europe. The City is still divided on the advisability of granting a loan to Germany. Germany has, after all, in effect repudiated her debts in just the same way as Russia repudiated those of the Czars, and to a much greater degree than Mr. Lang ever dreamt of doing in Xew South Wales. She still owes London investors gome £40,000,000. She could pay off. it is estimated, some £10,000.000 of this a year. But she does not do so, few the simple reason that she wants the money for armat ments. Spain. This week has seen the fall of Malaga and the cutting of the main food link between Madrid and the coast—the Valencia Road. In both cases the fighting on the rebel side has been largely carried out by Italians and Germans. It is indeed true to say that the Spanish civil war has ended, and that the Italo-German invasion of Spain has taken its place. The outlook at the moment looks black for the Government, but one thing must be borne in mind. In our opinion (and one of us has -pent some time in Spain during the conflict) the mass of the people of Spain are—and have been from the start—on the side of the Government, and it is a great mistake to under-estimate the determination with which they will struggle on. But a poorlv-armed Spanish Government, even with the aid of if '* the 15,000 foreign volunteers now fight ing in the International Column, cannot stand for ever against the Reichswehr and the Italian army. The report that the attack on Malaga was planned by General Goering and Count Ciano during Goerings visit to Rome appears to have »■ been borne out by facts.