WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1913. EXTRAORDINARY RETICENCE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 48, 26 February 1913, Page 6

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1913. EXTRAORDINARY RETICENCE

We publish to-day the full text of Mr. Harcourt'e deepatch concerning tho representation of the self-governing Dominions on the Committee of Imperial Defence. The documert makes exceedingly interesting reading, but tho date | and manner of the publication suggest some unpleasant, reflections. How cornea it that a despatch of the first importance, which must have been in the hands of the New Zealand Government on the 10th or 11th December— it was cabled from London on the former date — does not come before the people of New Zealand till the last week in February? Oddly enough, the despatch must have reached the Premier just in time for the farewell banquet to the Minister of Defence, at which some declaration on Imperial policy was naturally expected. At that time, no doubt, the deepatch was properly regarded as confidential, but it is remarkable that, with such a document in their possession, .neither Mr. Maesey nor his colleague should have had a word to say of the most general kind on the subject of representation on the Imperial Defence Committee — a subject which, without knowing anything of the despatch, w« had strongly urged upon their attention a day or two before, and which Mr. Arthur Myers had pressed very strongly in his speech at the banquet. The wonder is increased when we find that, along with the despatch, tho Secretary of State for the Colonies cabled the intimation that "His Majesty's Government propose to publish this despatch hero in a short time, iand you will be informed of the date when publication will tako place." Now, the Parliamentary White Paper containing tho despatch wa6 laid on the table of tho House of Commons on the 3rd January, and Mr. Harcourt may be assumed to have carried out his promise of letting the Dominion Governments know the dates beforehand. The aim of the Imperial Government evidently was to secure j simultaneous publication, but the aim of tho New Zealand Government* has apparently been" to keep the matter a 6 quiet as possible. Even after tho publication of the despatch in London had been briefly announced by cable on the 6th January, and we had again urged the importance of the matter and the right of the people of New Zealand to know all about it, the publication was still withheld. Tho toxt, which our Government wa* authorised, if not requested, by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to publish on the 3rd January, ha« not been published in New Zealand until the arrival of this week'o Suez mail enabled the local press to reproduce it from .the English papers. We are entirely at a loss to understand the reason for a policy not merely of reticence but of suppression on tho part of a Government which assuredly does not desire to injure the Empire or to check the growth of Imperial sentiment. Why, then, has it acted as if it did? The deplorable incident supplies another argument for the establishment of a portfolio for External Affairs. It | is impossible to suppose that, with a Minister specially commissioned to look after Imperial relations, this utterly perverse policy of suppressing Imperial information of great interest and importance would *be continued. Mr. Harcourt's despatch is l»y no means a mere repetition of the invitation to seek representation on the Imperial Defence Committee which was held out by Mr. Churchill in his speech on the Navy Estimates in March last and renewed by Mr". Harcoiirt himself in an address to his constituents in October, The de spatch shows that the idea is the almost direct outcome of resolutions submitted by the British Government during the last Imperial Conference, but not previously published. Technically, tho resolutions were not Conference resolutions. Tlie Colonial Secretary refers to them as "accepted unanimously by the members of the Imperial Conference at the Committee of Imperial Defence" on 30th May, but there was no formal sitting of the Conference between 25th M^y *nd Ist June. The principal reso- . lutioti affirmed ■•! that one or more repre- ,

senlatives, appointed by the respective Governments of the Dominions, should be invited to attend meetings of the Committee of Imperial Defence when questions^ of naval and military defence affecting the Oversea Dominiohs are under consideration." This resolution was adopted in place of Sir Joseph Ward's proposal that the High Commissioners fihould be invited to attend the meetings of the Imperial Defence Committee on the occasions in question. The unanimous opinion of those present on 30th May was that the representation should be by Ministers who would be responsible to their colleagues and to Parliament, and not by the High Commissioners. Direct Ministerial representation would obviously be far preferable if practicable, but the general terms of the resolution adopted leave it open to a Ministry which cannot send one of its own number to appoint an outsider to represent it. The arrangement with Canada squares exactly with this resolution, and we shall urge in a future article that, in spite of her remoteness, New Zealand should follow Canada's lead.