MR. MASSEY'S MESSAGE

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 91, 18 April 1921, Page 6

MR. MASSEY'S MESSAGE

Mr. Massey is able to face the Imperial Conference with an easier mind than Mr. Hughes. While the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth is still worrying over his defeat on that " snap " division, and is not satisfied that a reversal of the result by 43 votes to 19 has permanently settled the position, Mr. Massey is on his way to London with no nervous backward glances on an insecure Parliamentary position. He would have Jittle to fear from Parliament even if it were in session, but this long- prorogation puts it beyond a peradventure. Mr. Massey certainly has good cause for the gratitude which he expressed to the people of New Zealand in his farewell message for the confidence that they.have reposed in him for nearly nine years without a break. During about half that time the Empire has been at war, and it is largely on account of the Dominion's services in the war that Mr. Massey is justified in saving that "New Zealand stands in the forefront of the world's young democracies as an example and ... a cheer and inspiration, also, to the sister Dominions and Dependencies of the Empire." The valour of our soldiers,lias carried us far. It has helped to save the Empire from certain destruction ; it has given this country an honourable place among the-forces that foiled the attempt^ at a world-wide tyranny; and it has given the non-com-batant an opportunity of showing himself worthy of the terrible price that has been paid for his liberty.

Mr. Massey is under no delusion as to the gravity of the international outlook. The war that was to end war has not yet given us peace, and the truco that we are now dubiously enjoying may be but the preparation for a conflict on a still "more appalling scale. Speaking in the debate on the Address-in-Reply in the House of Commons, Mr. A. Hopkinson said : " The Prime Minister had said that there was to M a new heaven and a new earth, that this was to be a land fit for heroes to live in, and everybody -was to have plenty. That was the ■wickedest lie that had ever been told." The laughter with which this remark was greeted showed that the speaker did not really intend to be as hard on Mr. Lloyd George as his words might seem to imply. Before the Peace Conference Mr. Lloyd George shared the Utopian hopes that were almost universal, and the fact that he was able to give them more eloquent and authoritative expression than anybody else was his misfortune and not his fault. The prophecy to which Mr. Massey commits himself is of an opposite character. One would like to.be able to hope that it may prove equally baseless, but it ia much more easily open to attack as being too obvious to be' worth making. As to whether the Pacific is to become the' storm-centre of the world. Mr. Massey hazarded no opinion, but he declared without qualification that we shall have to go through another war. "It might not be for ten,- twenty, or forty years," said Mr. Massey, " but it would most assuredly take place, and.it behoved the Empire to be ready for it when it did come."

Without discussing Mr. Massey's very elastic time-table, we may say with reasonable confidence that the question whether the next great war will come in ten years or in forty yearsj or at some earlier or later time}, will depend very largely upon whether or not we are prepared for the emergency. The renewal of tho fierce competition ;n armament* which distinguished the years preceding 1914 is certainly not the best way of ensuring peace. On the other hand, to leave the Empire unable to defend itself would bo the best way of ensuring its destruction by war or still more ingloriously by a surrender without a struggle. Unfortunately, the Dominions are far from realising that the Empire is at present heading towards the second of these alternatives, and that they are doing nothing to stop it. It is but a very lame and impotent conclusion that our Prime Minister draws from his confident prophecy of the great war that is coming. He declares that he is " not going to commit the country to a heavy expenditure on anything that can bo avoided, but the time is coining when we must assist the United Kingdom in keeping up an Imperial Navy." How many years does he propose to -wait? Are not the danger and the injustice of the present position sufficiently obviou9 to demand immediate action? Britain can no longer provide a navy adequate for'the protection of the whole Empire, and it would be monstrous to expect that she. should. The Britieh Navy at the present rate will soon have dropped to the third place among the navies of the world. Doea Mr. Massey think that we should wait till this has been realised before he asks - this country to help in building an Imperial Navy that will suffice for the functions which he declares to be essential? He has perhaps ad-, vanced a. little beyond the vagueness of his statement in the House, but he still lags far behind the excellent lead that Mr. Hughes has given. Yet it is still possible to hope that at the Conference Mr. Massey will show himself an adequate •exponent of the Imperialism of the Dominion which ho is proud to rejprofl&ttW