AN UNHAPPY INCIDENT

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 27, 31 January 1919, Page 6

AN UNHAPPY INCIDENT

Yesterday the "vigorous crusade" which the New Zealand delegates had instituted for the increased representation of the Dominion at the Peace Conference was reported to have reached so hopeless an impasse that Sir Joseph AVard wag "thoroughly dissatisfied," and was thinking of returning home. Today we are officially informed that the burning question has been satisfactorily adjusted. New Zealand, accordingly, heaves a sigh of relief. She is relieved not by the terms of settlement, not by the concessions, whether real or shadowy, which have been made to the claims of her representatives, but by the fact that an end has at length been reached and that she is likely to hear nothing 'more of an unpleasant episode, of which she would have been thankful to hear nothing at all. It was not with the approval of New Zealand that the claim was made, nor did they regard it as in any way touching their interests. They have sufficient common-sense and sufficient appreciation of the constituents of a fair deal to enable them to see that the concession of any direct representation at all to a country of a million inhabitants, which in international law is but a subordinate province of the British Empire, was more than they had any right to expect from a World's Conference of the Great Powers. It wag a courteous and a gracious concession. Five delegates sufficed for the United States, with their population of a hundred millions; four were enough for the fortyfive million inhabitants of the British Isles, and two delegates satisfied the needs and the. ambitions of eight millions of Canadians. The oßer of a single delegate to New Zealand was therefore a disproportionate indulgence for which she had every reason to be thankful. .

If the people of this country were not very lively in their appreciation of the fact, they were certainly quite content with it, and would never have cast a vote or raised a voice in favour of demanding'further concessions from Great Britain and the associated Powers. To look their gift-horse in the mouth and say, ' Thank you for nothing; make it two, and we won't grumble," did not square with their ideas of justice, of statesmanship, or of courtesy. Their leaders have unfortunately thought otherwise, and the concentrated statesmanship of the world has been asked to pause from its colossal task in order to adjudicate upon a claim preferred in the name of the people of New Zealand which they themselves would have rejected with contumely if they had been consulted. The coldness with which they regarded the original- claim has only been increased by the arguments since adduced in its support. The superior merits of the people of this country are not a ground on which they desire to see an appeal based to any Imperial or international tribunal; and when, as in the present case, the success of the appeal depends in part upon the good-will of those over.- whom the superiority is claimed they can see other reasons than good taste and historical accuracy for leaving so perilous an argument alone. To overpraise the merits of our soldiers would not be easy, but they themselves would be the last persons to desire that their services should be made the basis of untenable and invidious civil claims. If the leading pugilist of another Dominion seeks to exploit the glories of Anzae in support of his role as the enfant terrible of the Peace Conference, the people of New Zealand do not wish to see their own representatives attempting to infringe his monopoly.

The closing of the unhappy incident will, it is to be hoped, enable our delegates to put the claims and aspirations of this conntry before the Conference in a manner less unworthy of both its national and its Imperial patriotism. This is not to be done by eulogies of its "virility and enterprise," or of the valour of its troops. It must be done by showing a broad outlook, and an equitable spirit, a willingness to face enlarged, responsibilities and duties, not a mere appetite for more territory and higher rights. While the Imperialism of the British Government has broadened into an international altruism which, as the Daily News says, may prove to be " the greatest victory of the war;" t'! patriotism hitherto displayed by our own leaders is, that of the parish. It is not merely in the interests of this country and of the Empire, but of their own reputation, that they should' put forth the very best that is in them. This conntry has made great sacrifices in the suspension of its congested public business in order to send them to the Conference. A small minority dissented, and if our leaders could know how grievously the hopes of the majority have hitherto been disappointed they would be shocked. If domestic politics prove to have been sacrificed on the altar' of an Imperialism which even ardent Imperialists feel to be unworthy, the lamentable effects upon both causes must be too- obvious to require argument.