THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 1915. AN IMPERIAL ISSUE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 148, 24 June 1915, Page 6

THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 1915. AN IMPERIAL ISSUE

How much or how little there may be in the suggestion which we mentioned yesterday that Mr. Massey may be called to Imperial councils before the war is over, we cannot profess to say. Mr. Massey himself has naturally Tefused to enlighten our ignorance. He neither affirms nor d-enies, and so leaves speculation as free a rein to wander at large over the subject as before. With the one positive remark to which he committed himself in reply to our enquiry everybody will be able to agree. " All I can say," said the Prime Minister, "is that my place is in the House while Parliament is sitting." We have deeply deplored the fact that during the recess Mr. Maesey has felt himself so tied by the administrative duties of his office, and the special anxieties of the unstable political equilibrium, that he could not even spare two or three weeks for the purpose of accepting the pressing invitation from Australia to attend the Premiers' Conference. It would have been a great thing to enlarge the scope of this Conference by giving it an Australasian range, and the present time of Imperial stress was specially opportune for such an extension. But the golden chance wae missed. Many other great opportunities will necessarily bo missed if the present close balancing of parties is to bo continued, without some definite understanding which will save the Government from t|»c demoralising effect of .* jar«wirl«us-t&au«» A NttUvuiU CiU)i>

net on the lines adopted in the United Kingdom is what the country would best like to ccc, and we bope that Mr. Massey will have the courage and the public spirit to exercise the initiative which rests with him, and frankly invite the formal co-operation of the Opposition. But whether we are to have a National Cabinet, or a mutual understanding which will allow the present Government to cany on without reconstruction, the place of the Premier will be in the House while it is in session, almost as obviously as though he had still to be nervously counting heads for every' division. Whether as party leader or as national leader in a fuller sense than has yet been realised either by himself or by anj of his predecessors, he should be in personal charge of the •legislative machine so long as it continues to work. But the session should not last long in any event, and the more intimate the understanding between the parties the- shorter will it be. Mr. Allen has fixed its duration at six or eight weeks, and Mr. Massey has promised that there will be no party legislation. In a recess which should be of unusual length and entirely free from the degrading necessity of pulling wires and counting heads and pricking cards, the Government should have ample time for paying some attention to Imperial affairs in their widest aspects. When the calling of an Imperial Conference was last mooted, the idea was that its special function should be to discuss the terms of peace. Even more now thair in January or April the proposal seems to us a mistake. If the end was not in sight at the beginning of the year, it has undoubtedly retired further into the mists of tiie future within the last two months. The Empire is now setting its teeth for a long struggle, which six months ago there was a general disposition to regard as likely to be reduced by two of the three years originally assigned to it by Lord Kitchener. It is now more imperative than ever that nothing should be done to distract the Empire or any part of it from the concentration of all its energies upon the prosecution of that struggle to a successful issue. It is not peace but war that should engage the attention of any Imperial Conference or Council that may be summoned at the present time. Whatever form such a gathering may take, New Zealand should, of course, be represented at it. She owes this as a duty both to herself and to the Empire, and we trust that both the leaders and the rank and file of all parties will keep this object in view when they are considering their attitude to' local issues. All parties in the Mother Country are setting a splendid example in Imperial patriotism. Let New Zealand follow her lead rather than that of the two senior Dominions, where the military enthusiasm of the people has not prevented the raging of civil strife among the politicians with exceptional bitterness. New Zealand can see which is the better way, and looks to her representatives in Parliament to enable her to take it.