Evening Post. FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 1924. MR. MASSEY'S RETURN

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 21, 25 January 1924, Page 6

Evening Post. FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 1924. MR. MASSEY'S RETURN

After an absence of-about five months, Mr. Massey returned to New Zealand yesterday, . and the cordiality of the welcome with which he was received at Auckland will be repeated here. The welcome is fortunately of a kind which recognises no distinctions of class or party. As the. Prime. Minister of New Zealand he has be'en representing^ us all on public business of the very first importance, and we are all glad to,see him back and to recognise that, whatever may be the ultimate outcome of the work in which he has been engaged, nobody will be able to ascribe its failure or partial failure to any lack of energy or industry on the part of our representative or of a wholehearted devotion to bis ideal of the highest interests of New Zealand and the Empire. There was a time when these Imperial gatherings were quite commonly regarded as little better than Imperial picnics in which the assembled Prime Ministers were able to have a good time at the public expense, to bxchange congratulations and compliments, to say a number of nice things about the Empire, and incidentally to renaer it a minimum of useful service. As a matter of fact, the. chances are' that during his stay in England Mr. Massey has had to work just about as hard as ever he did in bis life, that the lavish hospitality which from its official character could not possibly be avoided has greatly aggravated the strain, and that we may thank the perfect rest of a sea voyage for the excellent health and condition in which he has nevertheless returned.

The work of the Imperial Conference properly and necessarily occupied the greater part of. Mr. Massey's attention in his utterances at Auckland yesterday. It, was also inevitable that they were not dis--tinguished by the optimism which he has always displayed on previous occasions of the same kind!1 Of other Conferences' he has spoken with an enthusiasm which the ordinary reader had failed to derive from the published reports, but on this occasion no such cheerful contrast was observable. The- immediate contact with great affairs which had produced this enthusiasm before ha's now resulted in disappointment and apprehension far beyond the common measure. The people of this country; have' never attached any commanding importance to the question of Imperialpreference. They have been glad, to give British goods "'the preference which- their protective' tariff enabled them !to do at a minimum cost to themselves and with no disturbance of local industries. It was a genuine patriotism which inspired this preference and not the hope of reciprocal advantage^. It was a matter not of business but of sentiment. Having set no great store by the matter and having had no higher hopes of getting an effective preference from the Conference of 1923 than from any rof its predecessors, our people as a whole were not greatly excited by the fiscal programme upon which the Conference agreed, and will not be greatly, depressed if it is wrecked.

Mr. Massey is unable to regard the question with the philosophic calm which is easy for most of us under these conditions. j^e has taken a leading part in the debates which made a deep impression on the late British Government, and the process has stimulated his interest and his enthusiasm to a point which they had never reached, before he left New Zealand. Election pledges prevented Mr. Baldwin from offering the only sort of preference.that could do Australia and New Zealand much good, but Mr. Bruce and Mr. Massey were right in wglooming even the small instalment offered, both as the recognition of an important principle and as an "earnest of something better to come. But now that the defeat of the Baldwin Government has imperilled even this modest7instalment, it is surely the part of wisdom not to make too much fuss about it, and not to emphasise the small point on which we differ from the British people and their new rulers to the neglect of the 'far more momentous issues on which .the whole Empire is at one. Pesiring to act in the spirit of this advice, and not to mar our welcome of Mr. Massey with a controversial note, we say nothing at present 'on his interesting exposition of the theory of the continuity of Imperial policy. But we note with pleasure that on the two main points he is, as we all expected, absolutely sound. He does not suggest that New Zealand's loyalty to Great Britain is dependent in the remotest degree on the reciproinuioij <=»{ ?»t»i' tdtjiy pj'ulei'Brteea, ot that ah e w m take her goods "else'

where if she does not get the terms that she wants. Whether the British Parliament agrees to the recommendations- or not, says Mr. Massey, it will not make the slightest difference to the loyalty of New Zealand, and I believe the same may be said of the other Dominions as well. One reason why Mr. Massey has devoted so much attention to the fiscal issue may be that there is little else of a positive kind to the credit 01 the Imperial Conference of 1923. Yet there are. two subjects of supreme importance with which the Conference had" to deal, and regarding which the*meagreness of the reports has left the public very imperfectly informed. The discussion of naval defence and foreign policy was necessarily to a large extent confidential, but Mr. Massey is probably not aware how very ignorant the policy of secrecy has kept us regarding the proceedings of the Conference on both these questions. As these are two matters upon which the very existence of the Empire depends, and Mr. Massey fully realises the fact, we trust that he will lose no chance of enlightening the public on both points and giving them the prominence that they -deserve. " The Conference has decided," said" Mr. Massey yesterday, "that the Empire, whatever happened, is going to uphold its prestige by maintenance of sea-power." Let him tell us how the Conference*expects the decision' to be carried out, anchow, regardless of the default of others, New Zealand can help.