IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 83, 6 October 1915, Page 6

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

Dr. Thaeker's timely question in the House of Representatives yesterday elicited a reply from the Prime Minister which should be received with lively satisfaction throughout the country. Dr. Thacker assumed that representatives of New Zealand would be going to London shortly, and desired to know who they would be and what policy they would advocate with regard to the defence of the Pacific. On the matter of policy the member for Christchurch East did not receive any enlightenment, nor is it likely that he was expecting any. Now that the Pacific has been cleared of the enemy's cruisers _ the problem has ceased to be urgent, and the Empire has so much other work in hand of deadly urgency that the supreme need is to get it done before spending time upon even the greatest, of the questions that must be settled afterwards. Mr. Massey very properly left the question of defending the Pacific alone, but he expressed the hope that a meeting of the Imperial Conference would be summoned at no distant date, and that New Zealand's representatives would be the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance. The opinion of the^ member who interjected " A great combination " will be universally shared. We have previously expressed the opinion that the Imperial Conference should provide for the representation of Oppositions as well as Governments, but the proposal has never been strongly pushed. Fortunately, the country can now be fully represented at the Conference without raising this debatable issue. N«w Zealand Ha-a. mtfiio the lut Wo months, &esu«sd mutthentation. M iiSSt jeffifi.

Cabinet on the broadest possible basis, and the Cabinet can therefore represent her" at the Imperial Conference with a thoroughness never possible before.' The country's gratitude for the formation of the National Cabinet will be renewed and increased by the announcement that both Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward will represent it at the next Imperial Conference. In May the anxieties of the unstable political equilibrium were such that Mr. Massey could not spare even two or three weeks to make the Premiers' Conference at Mcl- 1 bourne representative for the first time of all Australasia. Now a Cabinet which is freed from party worries is able to send its two strongest men away for mouths in perfect confidence. It is to be noted that Mr. Massey made no attempt to forecast the date of the next Imperial Conference, and his language does not suggest that it is likely to be soon. A conference at which the ultimate organisation of Imperial defence in the Pacific would be an appropriate item on the order paper must still be a j long way off. But there is no reason why Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward should delay their visit to London till then. There is plenty of valuable work that they could do foF New Zealand and the Empire if they made, a start at once. Apropos of Sir Robert Borden's visit and his admission to a meeting of the British Cabinet, Mr. Bonar Law has stated that the like opportunities are open to representatives of the other Dominions, and that his Government will welcome them individually if they cannot all come at onoe. By accepting this invitation, Mr. Massey and his colleague could learn a great deal about the inner mysteries of the Empire's fight for life which it would be profitable for them to know, and which might prove to be of the utmost value, both in relation to the prosecution of the war and afterwards. If they travelled to London via Australia and returned through Canada, they would also receive a considerable compensation for the absence of representatives of the other Dominions, if a joint meeting in London proved to be impossible.