NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 156, 20 March 1923, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

Differences over financial ami economic questions apparently raise the principal remaining obstacles to peace between Turkey and the Allies The determination of the frontier between Turkey and Irak is one of the questions still unsettled, but the ultimate Turkish proposal is that the matter should be referred to the League of Nations Since Britain had already proposed this course, the frontier question is not likely to give rise to any lasting difficulty. The financial and economic issues still in dispute, and those relating to judicia safeguards for foreigners, may be much less easily solved. Apparently, however, there is a complete and satisfactory departure from the conditions formerly existing in which Britain seemed likely to be left unaided to deal with Turkey. Amongst foreign investors in Turkish industries and in other Turkish securities, Frenchmen take an easy first place. France thus has an even greater interest than Britain in insisting upon conditions which will as far as possible safeguard property rights and the lives and liberties of Europeans resident in Turkey. In the circumstances it may be expected that France will strongly support Britain in enforcing equitable conditions of peace.

According to the Napier Telegraph, a Liberal organ, Sir Joseph Ward stated just prior to the opening of his Tauranga electioneering campaign that he could not support Mr. Massey and he could not follow Mr Wilford. The inference to be drawn from these statements is that the only person Sir Joseph Ward is prepared to follow and support is Sir Joseph Ward. Now, Sir Joseph claims that his election would not mean a dissolution; and he also asserts that Mr. Massey could not carry on whether his majority was three as at present or one, as it would he if Sir Joseph were elected What then does Sir Ward expect to happen if he is elected ? Seeing that he will neither support nor follow the existing political party leaders it would appear that his idea of solving the problem is that they should stand ’aside for him. Though this hardly squares with his claims to a disinterested desire only to bring the best brains in I arliament together in the interests of the country, it is pretty plain that he hopes to take advantage of the situation to regain the Premiership. No exception can be taken to Sir Joseph Ward seeking to gratify his ambition, but his present pose as a prospective saviour of his country is rather amusing in the light of his past failures as a political leader. Sir Joseph plainly does not belong to .the ranks of th<\c class of modest people who believe in hiding their light under a bushel or in leaving it for others to chronicle their political perfections.

WhetheA' it was the drawing power of a prize fight between two boxers of high repute or that the rebels are losing their power to terrorise is uncertain, but the Siki-McTigue contest in Dublin seems to have broken down the ban placed by the rebels on the attendance of the public at amusements in Dublin. In spite of threats that they would attend at the risk of their lives a vast crowd is stated to have defied the rebel order and witnessed the fight between their compatriot and the French black. The protection afforded by a large force of Free State troops enabled the contest to be carried through without interference/by the rebels, and the'success of the Irish boxer no doubt was a fitting climax to as remarkable a boxing scene as has ever been witnessed in the history of the ring. The determination of the Free State authorities to break down jhe ban placed on amusements of all descriptions by the rebels will no doubt be strengthened by the success of its effort on this occasion; but it will not be an easy thing to make theatre-going popular with the possibility hanging over the audiences all the time of the rebels dropping a bomb in their midst during the nrogress of the entertainment or slaughtering them with pistol fire on their homeward journey. If, however, the rebels were permitted to override the authority of the Government and dictate to the people of Ireland as they have attempted to do in the matter of their amusements the influence of the Government would be seriously shaken.

In the course of a rather ingenious if somewhat long-winded communication to a contemporary, Mr. P. Fraser, the Labour-Socialist candidate for the Mayoralty, seeks to justify his departure from the Labour principle of ‘‘one man, one job.” Mr. Fraser is a member of Parliament, and he is novf seeking to add to this position the office of Mayor of the city, and by so doing is keeping other Labour men out of the chance of winning the Mayoral job. Mr. I'baser endeavours to justify his brea.ch of Labour principles by twisting the meaning ot those principles. He says: There has been some talk about the undesirability of one man holding two positions. On this contention being analysed it rosqlves itself into a well-grounded and justifiable objection to any person in the Labour movement drawing two salaries. With that point ot vmw lam in complete Following on this he proceeds to explain that he proposes, after paying his Mayoral expenses, to give away the balance of the Mayoral honorarium. Now, Mr. Fraser knows quite well that this is merely an evasion of the question raised. It is not a matter of one man drawing two salaries as he suggests, but of one man holding two jobs, and by so doing keeping another man out of a job. Mr. Fraser, being in receipt of his salary as a member of Parliament, no doubt can afford to give away the balance of the Mayoral salary after he has deducted from it his out-of-pocket expenses. This docs not alter the fact that by holding the two jobs he would be robbing a fellow Labour-Socialist or the chance of one of 1 the two and the salary attached thereto. The point wc made in our previous comment on the subject was that the plums of ofhee in tho Labour movement appear to be distributed amongst a sma'l clique, of which Mr. P. Fraser is a prominent example. It is clear that we wore not mistaken in that view.