NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 147, 19 March 1934, Page 8

NOTES OF THE DAY

Mr. Bernard. Shaw’s contrast between Parliamentary and municipal government hardly fits present-day facts. It may probably be true that Parliament’s main preoccupation, the interests of parties, makes it difficult to get things done with business-like efficiency and expedition, but the same tendency may be observed in municipal government, the elections for which in recent years have been dominated by political party interests rather than the general community’s. A contemporary illustration in point, which may interest Mr. Shaw, is the continual party warfare that prevails in the Christchurch City Council, and occasionally finds vent in Wellington. We used to refer to. our municipal representatives as the. “City Fathers,” a term denoting, and actually meaning in practice, a paternal regard for the general welfare of the community. Since the introduction of the political element the term has lost its significance, which is rather a pity, for party wrangling has gradually lost to the community the services of a type of citizen who could ill be spared.

Whether the Hitler Government will officially and specifically identify itself with the agitation in Germany for the restoration of the lost colonics remains to be seen. As it is definitely committed to Treaty revision the former colonies may be presumed to be included in its programme. There can be no question, however, of returning their colonies except under conditions similar to those under which they are at present administered by Powers. Broadly speaking, there were no territorial annexations after the War. The policy agreed upon at the Peace Conference was that the colonial territories formerly held by Germany were to be handed back to their original owners, the natives. Administrative control was vested in certain nations appointed as trustees under mandates conferred by the League of Nations. The ultimate object was to be complete native sovereignty ■as was granted recently to Irak, and which may be granted some day to Palestine, or to Samoa, if and when these communities under education and guidance become sufficiently competent to govern themselves. These are questions to be determined by the League of Nations. Should a mandatory Power desire to relinquish its responsibilities, it would be open to Germany to apply for the mandate, and that is as far, as matters now stand, as she could go in the direction of her colonial aspirations.