Prime Ministers in the Limelight.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18901, 17 January 1927, Page 10

Prime Ministers in the Limelight.

The Imperial Conference has evidently aroused in Mr Coates and Mr Bruce a determination, to use their personal liifluence in outside their own to quicken" the sense of unity ctf the British ' peoples. The singleminded pursuit &i an ideal is so rare in political life that -it is difficult to Speak of it critically, but there is & danger that, by discussing at this stage such a. matter as trade between the separate Dominions, which requires aft iittmeme amount of expert tion before any practical steps can fee taken, Mr Bruce and Mr C6atC3 may find themselves in deep water. Their visit to Canada will be of benefit to themselves* to Canada, and to the Empire, but it is hardly a time when intricate trade . problems can be examined. Bather it is ftn opportunity for the establishment of personal contacts that Will be valuable when these problems come to be looked into. Mr Coates, for instance, "emphatically ■"denied that his country Was Satisfied '■ with the present trade relations with "Canada," and added, "We import "five times as much from you as We " export to you." As att isolated state*' ment this has little significance, for 'presumably Mf Coates does not think there should be an even trade balance between New Zealand and Canada. To encourage trade; between the two countries is desirable, but the balance Is bound to be in Canada's favour ~ because of her large exports of machinery and motor-cars. Canada is also a great primary producing country, and any attempt to strike a balance by" tariffs in favour of New Zealand pri : ffiary products is suro to cause political complications, as happened with the trade treaty between Australia and Canada. Mr Brute, going even further than Mr Coates, has taken the whole of North America Wider his whig. After bestowing much fatherly advice upon the Americans, he has talked to the Canadians on Imperial defence almost ii the manner one adopts towards & recalcitrant child. In a try which has such peculiar political problems/ and in which the Imperial defence issue'has at times aroused exirtdrdifiary bitterness, this wellmeant advice may make things very awkward for Mr Mackenzie King, and it i 3 perhaps a tribut* to the goodwill cruttd' by the Conference that so far the : C«ta/diinfi have accepted all that ha» been said in ft good spirit. Woul4 any Dominion Prime Minister hate

bSeft allowed Such, license in Canada a year ago f It is a question, however, whether this insistence on defence problems will be so equably received in the United States, where a section of the Press is only too ready to misinterpret the ambitions of the Empire. Mr Coates and Mr Bruce are well in the limelight just now, and it would be a pity if their mission were construed in some quarters as a jingoistic crusade.