Evening Post. TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1918. RIGHTS AND DUTIES

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 14, 16 July 1918, Page 6

Evening Post. TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1918. RIGHTS AND DUTIES

The dinner given by the Ministry of Information to the Canadian editors in London was in itself an interesting occasion. The idea of a Ministry of Information would have been laughed at a few years ago, but now the wonder rather is that its creation should have been delayed till long after tho Air Ministry and the Ministry of Reconstruction had been accepted as necessary parts of the natural order. In counteracting the German propaganda by disseminating the truth, the Ministry of- Information under a Canadian Minister is doing valuable work, and incidentally it has now performed a feat which hitherto the (War Conference has failed to achieve. ; It has drawn a public speech from Mr. I Lloyd George, and a speech which in its broad outlook upon Imperial affairs is just the sort ,of speech that the Conference might have^een expected to elicit. That one of the results of the war will be a real change in the character of the British Empire is a commonplace which nobody needed Mr. Lloyd George's help to enable him to discover, but Mr. Lloyd George amplified it in an interesting and authoritative fashion. "This is a war/ he said, "in which we engaged the Dominion& without consulting them because there was no time to do so. It is true that the Dominions approved our policy of protecting the small States in Europe. Henceforth you will have the right to be consulted beforehand. The contributions you have made to enforce our treaties give you an undeniable right to a voice in fashioning the policy which may commit you. For that reason the Imperial War Cabinet is a reality." The invitation of Dominion Ministers to the Wai 1 Cabinet, which was one of the first acts of the Lloyd George Government, was indeed an official recognition of the right not merely to consultation, but to executive partnership, which the Dominions had won by their military partnership in the war.- The right thus clearly recognised eighteen months ago, and now enunciated by the British Prime Minister in the plainest possible terms, may surely be regarded as at any rate so clearly established as to require no further emphasis on the part of the Dominions. Mr. Massey was talking a few days ago about the "indisputable right" of the Dominions in this matter, and other Dominion, delegates to the War Conference' have spoken in a similar strain. But a right which is not only indisputable but undisputed requires no such emphasis' from them. What is required from the Dominions is a, clear recognition of the obligations which the right freely and generously conceded will demand as its necessary correlative. Wnen Mr. Lloyd George says that the contributions made by the Dominions to the enforcement of Imperial treaties gives them an undeniable right to a voice in the fashioning of future policy, he perhaps concedes not more than is just and necessary in regard to the'settlement of the terms of peace. But it would fee plainly absurd to suggest that the Dominions' services in the present war entitle' them to a permanent share in the control of the foreign policy of the Empire without their shouldering much more definite and onerous obligations than they had undertaken in the halcyon "go-as-you-please" era that preceded the war. And even the settlement of the terms of the peace will involve some permanent responsibilities of which, the Dominions cannot possibly evade an equitable shave if, at their instance and out of consideration for their special interests, these responsibilities are incurred by tho Empire as a whole. The Pacific question, in which everybody on this side of the world is so keenly interested, provides a crncial test. If words would annex German' New Guinea and German Samoa to the Empire, Australasia has already done her duty in the matter and put the question "beyond doubt. Her politicians have argued with one voice upon the subject, and her accredited representatives in the Mother Country continue to talk in the same strain. " Until Germany is democratised," says Mr. Hughes,, "she must not bo permitted to cast the shadow of despotic rule over lands whose development depends upon freedom.' Australia's policy carries great and grave responsibilities ; but she is prepared to fight on till victory is won." It is a fair comment on these words that battalion after battalion is being withdrawn from the Australian forces in Europe because the necessary reinforcements are not forthcoming, and that neither Mr. Hughes nor any other authority has given any mdi-, cation of what special responsibilities Australia is pi-epared to undertake after the war in order to make good her special claims in the Pacific. Our own representatives speak in a manner which is equally clear and deter-

mined in regard to what we want, but equally vague as to what wo are prepared to do for the purposes of obtaining what we want and of safeguarding it when obtained. VXi tiai'ittauy we*n

allowed to retain. Samoa and New Guinea," said Sir Joseph Ward, "she would inevitably dominate the Pacific. Tho prolongation of the war for five or ten years would be justified if British domination of the Pacific was preserved. . . .

It did not matter what pressure was exerted, Australasia would protest against allowing Samoa and New Guinea to revert to Germany." ' This is good talk, yet the same talker told us a year ago that the time was coming when we should have to consider whether we were not sending too many men, and a week ago he stood by in silence when the High Commissioner suggested that the point had been already reached. It will be worth prolonging the war for five or ten years in order to presstve Australasia from the German menace, but others than Australasians must be found to do the fighting—such is the logic of these two speeches when placed side by 3ide. The emphatic declaration of Sir James Allen last night in answer to our challenge that, whatever the High Commissioner may have said, the Government stands where it did and will maintain tho New Zealand Division at its full strength, is very satisfactory as far as it goes. We should be glad if the same authority would take an early opportunity of beginning the education of his fellow-countrymen as to the future burdens and obligations which must be cheerfully undertaken if the claims which are being urged on their behalf and with their approval are to be made good.