NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 134, 22 February 1923, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

The - Federal Prime Minister (Mr. S. M. Bruce) has stated that tho forecast of the policy of his Government which appeared in one ' f cablegrams was unauthorised, and is not correct. It- wa«, of course, obvious that in the brief period for which it has been in existence the new Australian Government could not well have mapped out a comprehensive and detailed policy on the lines indicated. In the main, however, the proposals outlined, including important changes in the Federal and State taxation systems and the assembling of a convention to forward the. new State movement, are leading items In the policy of the- Country Party. Probably some sort of compromise agreement on these and other questions is a condition of the continued existence of the Bruce-Page Government.

It is reported to-day from different quarters that Germany now contemplates an attempt to open up international negotiations on the reparations question. Should she approach Britain and America with a definite offer of some real effort to meet her obligations, a first step no doubt would be taken towards clearing up the present complex and threatening situation in the Rhineland. The reports in question, however, are not easily reconciled with an American official statement that not only have no conversations concerning Anglo-American concerted action regarding.the position in the Ruhr been in progress, but none are contemplated, the' United States considering the time improper. Definite overtures by Germany might, of course, induce America to change her attitude, but the real difficulty may be that Franco is determined to reach a direct settlement with Germany without Anglo-American intervention.

Statements reported to have been made in Sydney by Mr. MacLaren, captain of the English cricket team which lately toured the Dominion, are mildly described as ungracious. It is admitted freely that New Zealand cricketers had a good deal to learn from the English visitors, though more perhaps about teamwork than about individual play, but the remarks attributed to Mr. MacLaren regarding standards of local play are nevertheless in poor taste. The observation that at Nelson some of the New Zealand players hardly knew tho handle from the blade of a bat is distinctly unworthy of a visiting cricket captain. As much may be said of references to the ignorance of local cricketing writers and the inferiority of reports of matches which Mr. MacLaren, on his own showing, “rarely read.” As they are reported, Mr. MacLaren’s observations appear to have been gratuitously ill-tempered.

An interesting detail in the House of Commons debate on Mesopotamia, which is reported to-day, is Mr. Bonar Law’s statement that Britain had once offered Mesopotamia to America for administration. This is a rather staggering reply to American criticisms of Britain, of which the following observations by The Oil Weekly, Houston. Texas, arc a fair sample: —“Ever sine© the Armistice, Great Britain has been steadily increasing her sphere of influence, and at the same time quietly adding to her great oil resources in this vast territory. . . As a result of the Versailles Treaty she was granted a mandate of Mesopotamia, and with it controlling interests in tho Turkish Petroleum Company, holders of an exclusive concession on the whole of that wildcat country. ... As a result of this activity, other nations, particularly the United States and France, have found themselves left out in the cold. The United States has protested against the wholesale acquisition of exclusive concessions to any one country to some effect. .” These assertions are open to criticism in several details, but the main point is that the advantages on which Britain is nllege’d to have laid grasping hands in Mesopotamia were freely offered to America. That the offer was not accepted is, of course, due to th> fact that America couples a desire for unimpeded freedom in commercial enterprise with a strong disinclination to enter into “foreign entanglements - ’ which might involve her in trouble and expense.

At a time when the need of steady continuity in British policy j» very plainly defined, it is particularly bad news that the state of Ms. Bonap Law’s health is causing him to feel the strain of his Parliamentary duties, and giving his friends anxiety. When he agreed, not over willingly to resume the leadership of his party, Mr. Bonar Law stipulated that ho must be allowed without protest to resign should failing health make that course advisable. It is not now suggested (hat his resignation is likely to become necessary in the near future, but in view of his indifferent health the suggestion that his burdens would be lightened if he had “stronger colleagues” may weigh heavily with prominent Unionists like Mr. Austen Chamberlain and Sib Robert Horne, who arc meantime holding aloof from the Government. There is no longer any very serious obstacle to a complete reunion of the British Unionist Party.