A BRIEF HOLIDAY.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20427, 23 December 1931, Page 10

A BRIEF HOLIDAY.

SIR HENRY LAWSON'S VISIT. GUEST OF GOVERNOR-GENERAL. ITHE PRESS Special Service.] WELLINGTON, December 22. On a visit to New Zealand for the first time, Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Lawson, of London, arrived in Wellington by the Rangitane from Southampton. lie confessed he was looking forward very much to his brief holiday in New Zealand. Ho will be the guest of Lot& Bledisloe at Government House, Auckland, at Christmas, and will later visit the South Island before leaving on January 12th for Australia, where he has a brother, Mr James A. Lawson, in Melbourne. "I think things are now pretty well' in England, although it is jolly hard to tell how they are going," Sir Henry said, referring to post-election events and the existing situation. "Some people seem to think otherwise, but against that there are a great many who are not downhearted and who think the Old Country is going to pull through all right. Millions of Labour and- Liberal voters voted for the Coalition Government simply because they wanted to do their duty for their country. It shows what a good fellow the English voter is." Sir Henry has been a supporter of the League of Nations and is a prominent member of the English League of Nations Union. He said there was no doubt even if the League did not make war absolutely impossible it wouldalways tend to delay the outbreak of war. With regard to the Manchurian dispute, the gravity of which had been increasing since Sir Henry left England, he said he thought that both China and Japan would be loath to do anything which would seriously displease the other parties to the League Covenant. Nevertheless Japan was rather unhappily situated. She could not easily gain entrance for her emigrants to America or Australia or New Zealand or any other country where Japaneso and other Asiatic immigration was restricted. She sought to establish herself on tho Chinese mainland and should not be criticised thoughtlessly by nations who kept her out of their own Dominions. Sir Henry said ho was looking forward very much to his present trip to New Zealand, more particularly because it had always seemed to him that the New Zealanders were the most English of the Colonial people. The climate, he supposed, had a good deal to do with this. He remembered long ago when visiting Rome as a young man, having met another young man at the hotel. They spent a lot of time together, visiting historical places, and lie thought at the time that tho young man was an Englishman. When he was leaving his friend said ho was a New Zealander going Home for the first time. "It made a great impression on me," Sir Henry said. "Your schools and colleges must, be of a good type." Sir Henry retired from the Army in j 1921, after a long and distinguished | career. j