ANOTHER SHOCK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 139, 15 June 1938, Page 17

ANOTHER SHOCK.

'BILLY' HUGHES AGAIN

DRAMATIC' CHALLENGE. "WHAT WE HAVE WE HOLD." (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, June 9. Mr. \V. M. Hughes, in liis official capacity, has just been paying a visit to New Guinea. A contributor to "Smith's Weekly" put the fact the other d«v in rather humorous form: "As a result of earth tremors in New Guinea, the Minister of External Affairs is leaving this week for an inspection of the territory. This is not the first time that tremors have preceded his visit. My own experience is that 011 subsequent reflection the local administration will find it difficult to j distinguish between Mr. Hughes and j the earthquake." I That is the sort of reputation that i | Mr. Hug'.ies acquired throughout Australia many years ago, and he still succeeds in "living up to it" unfailingly. At first there seemed to be no indication of anything unusual about his visit or his state of mind. After the official reception by the Administrator, Sir N. McNicoll, the Minister, however, was escorted off to a public function arranged to celebrate the inauguration of the Carpenter Airways mail service !x>tween Xpw fiuinea and Sydney and it was at this ceremonial that the irrepressible "Billy" succeeded in shocking officialdom once more.

It was nature 1 that in making his speech he should refer to the part that he played in securing the mandate for Australia. For it it* a matter of history that he had hard work to persuade President Wilson and Lloyd George and Clemenceau that Australia desired and deserved this concession. But having got 011 the subject, he speedily allowed his enthnsiasm to carry him away. I "On this rock," he declared in the rhetorical language which he can use with ouch startling effect, "we have got our mandate and have built our churc.i. and all hell is not going to take it away from us. What we have we shall hold. Whoever holds New Guinea commands Australia. When people ask me what would happen if they took the mandate away from us, I say nothing wouVl happen." Attitude at Versailles.

Of course, in the speech as "Billy" delivered it, this dramatic and portentous challenge to all and sundry foreigners who may venture to cast covetous eyes on our "northern rampart," was carried off by his personal reminiscences and reflections delivered in his moot vivid and characteristic style. He told how he had argued and protested and declaimed at Versailles, and how he had told President Wilson that he spoke j not for the 5,000.0011 inhabitants of the 1 Commonweo Ith, but "for 00.000 dead"- — and his audience cheered, as all audiences will continue to cheer for Mr. Hughes while he has enough strength and vigour to impose the charm <rf his eloquence upon them. But when these things were reported in all the newspapers, and people began to consider how this speech, made by the Federal Minister for External Affairs, would sound in German or Italian or .Japanese I ears, and how far the Powers, now hungry for oversea colonies and dependencies, might l>e expected to receive it, then "there was another tale to tell." In particular, members of Parliament at Canberra and Mr. Hughes' colleagues in the Lyons Cabinet presented the appearance of being shocked «t "Billy's" irreverence, or alarmed at his temerity, and finally Mr. Hawker (once himself a Federal Minister) brought matters to a head last week by asking the Prime Minister whether the statement made by Mr. Hughes regarding Australia's tenure of New Guinea is U> be accepted as a definite declaration of the Government's policy. Mr. Lyons, of course, was cautious and noncommittal, but the impression that his remarks left on most people is that there will be trouble brewing for "Billy" by the time that he gets back to Canberra.

Challenge Undesirable. Of course it is generally believed that Mr. Hughes expressed in his own picturesque way precisely what the Lyons Government itself holds about New Guinea and the Mandate. .Some time ago Sir George Pearce, then Minister of Internal Affairs, told the .Senate, when the question of colonics was under discussion, that the return of New Guinea to the Germans was "unthinkable." But the circumstances were quite different then, and it would be strange if the Prime Minister did not object to finding his hand forced in this spectacular fashion, at a time when it is so obviously undesirable in the interests of either Britain or Australia or the Empire to throw out gratuitous challenges to Germany or any other foreign Power. This not the first time that "Billy" Las offended his political leader by the somewhat indiscreet impetuosity of his comments on foreign policy. Not very long ajro when the trouble between Italy and Abyssinia was at its height, he wrote a book on sanctions, in which he expressed views directly opposed to the policy of Government. For this he was virtually expelled from the Cabinet; but his colleagues recognising that they could not afford to go without hit •ourI age and qjoquence and ability, soon took I him back again. This year he caused more trouble at Canberra by declaring I in reply to Germany's demand for the restoration of her colonies that Aut* tralia would not be a party to "throwing a bone to a hungry tiger." A little later, commenting on the attack made on an Australian subject by the crew of a visiting Italian warship, he said publicly that Australia ought to demand compensation irom Italy. Now

ooines his third "faux pas" within six months —a direct warning to Germany delivered at the moment when Mr. Lyons is most anxious, in obedience to British suggestion, to "sing small" on foreign affairs. Possibly Mr. Lyons and his colleagues will refuse to take the matter too seriously, reflecting that after all it is "only Billy's way." And it must not be forgotten that no other man has so good a right as William Morris Hughes to regard New Guinea as a precious possession which Australia should defend by force rather than surrender. Obligations to Mr. Hughes. Far more than any other man Mr. Hughes was responsible for the transfer of New Guinea to Australia's control. Says the contributor to "Smith's Weekly" in the article to which I have already referred: "That the Australian flag flies over New Guinea is due to Mr. Hughes. That Australian goods to the value of approximately £1,000,000 per annum are sold to New Guinea is due to Mr. Hughes. That hundreds of Australians are profitably employed in New Guinea, and export goods to the value of £2,.">00,000 sterling, is due to Mr. Hughes. And, last but not least, to him and him alone we owe the security which lies in the possession of a possibly hostile base from which many of our principal cities could be bombed." These are indeed substantial obligations, and, remembering them, it is possible that Mr. Lyons and his colleagues may be prepared to deal gently with the vivacious and incalculable "Billy" when they take him to task for his last and probably most dangerous escapade.