The Ottawa Delegation.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20563, 3 June 1932, Page 10

The Ottawa Delegation.

When the Wellington Chamber of Commerce objected to the constitution of the official delegation to Ottawa, the other day, no doubt it was impelled mainly by two reasons; and no doubt it was by them that the Council of the Canterbury Chamber was moved to the same protest last night. Obviously it costs much more to send three Ministers than one. Obviously, again, if one or two of them were to remain iu New Zealand, it would not be to spend idle days but to plan and supervise the difficult work of a Government facing difficult problems. The country needs to save money and needs constantly the wisest and strongest leadership possible; but to run along these lines to the conclusion that the delegation should be smaller and Cabinet's strength kept up is to be too hasty. The Chambers are overlooking both the importance of the Conference and the arduousness and variety of its work. If the Conference means anything at all, then it means an opportunity to plan an Imperial effort of economic reconstruction, powerful and far-reach-ing enough to help the Empire at least and to help other countries, connected with it by trade interests, if they are ready to give and take. This is an enterprise great enough to deserve the Dominion's full support, even if full support costs three steamer tickets instead of one and even if it involves the risks, such as they are, of leaving a weakened Cabinet in charge at honiii The risks of being inadequately represented at Ottawa and the cost of failure there would be infinitely greater; and to imagine that any one man's resources, of knowledge and intellect and physical strength, could sustain him through the length and variety and difficulty of the Conference negotiations is very much to underestimate them and to pay him a quite impossible compliment.