The Press THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 1944. N.Z. Representation Oversea

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24226, 6 April 1944, Page 4

The Press THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 1944. N.Z. Representation Oversea

A few days ago the Prime Minister announced the appointment of the Hon. D. Wilson as High Commissioner in Canada. To say that no better appointment could be desired or that no better one is possible would be to say a little too much. To say that it is a good one is fair and sufficient. Mr Wilson is levelheaded and well-informed, a patient, hard-working administrator, who thinks before he speaks and thinks more than he speaks. He is in the best sense of an abused phrase a practical man, not because he has no theories—which would mean that he had no ideas and held no principles—but because he knows that, if theories create practice, they also emerge from it, are tested by it, and must be regulated by it. He can do well. This morning the Prime Minister’s announcement of other appointments is reported: that of Mr C. A. Berendsen to Washington, enabling the Hon. j W. Nash to return to his ministerial duties in New Zealand, and of Mr J. G. Barclay to take Mr Berendsen’s place in Canberra. In two respects this announcement is a welcome one. There can be no question that, successfully as Mr Nash may have served in Washing- ) ton, the arrangement under which his responsibilities and his time have been divided is a thoroughly undesirable one. In deciding that he is now needed even more in Wellington than in Washington the Government has decided upon more complete evidence than is available outside the Cabinet room, but entirely as the outside view of it suggests. Moreover, in being able to send Mr Berendsen to succeed him the Government is fortunate. The Dominion will have a representative who lacks nothing but Cabinet rank; and that is a distinction or a qualification he can spare. But m| choosing to send Mr Barclay to Canberra the Government cannot be considered to have chosen wisely or even with political discretion. Mr Barclay is “ a 'practical farmer. - ’ The Prime Minister mentions this as the first of Mr Barclay’s qualifications. For the task of representing New Zealand in Canberra it is no qualification whatever, or one of the very slightest significance. Much of the business with which New Zealand’s High Commissioner in Canberra will be concerned is defined in the Canberra Pact and its sequel in the establishment of the Australia-New v Zealand secretariat. It has little to do with practical farming. Next, Mr Barclay has been Minister “of Lands, Agri- “ culture, and Marketing.” It is true. He was not a good Minister, and he was a Minister deposed by the electors. He ran headlong upon his own failure and defeat—and the way runs to Canberra. The country will hot understand this; will not be readily persuaded that Mr Barclay hid his real abilities from all but the Government during his ministerial career and will surely unfold them in Canberra; will certainly not believe that, party service and party affiliation aside, the Government could find no stronger, no better equipped candidate for so important a post.