The Evening Post. THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1930. UNNECESSARY CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 45, 21 August 1930, Page 8

The Evening Post. THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1930. UNNECESSARY CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

What three weeks ago appeared to be impossible, became, probable a day or two later, and a week afterwards looked very doubtful, was fortunately put beyond a doubt by the Prime Minister's statement yesterday regarding the Imperial Conference.

The work of the session has now been carried sufficiently forward, he said, to enable mo to arrive at a definite decision that it will be possible for me to attend the Conference, and lam not accordingly making arrangements to leave New Zealand for this purpose on Tuesday next.

That so importanj: a decision should not have been announced till within a week of the time when it must take effect indicates what •a, narrow escape the Dominion has had from a serious disaster. The primary responsibility rests, with the Prime Minister for failing to make . and announce at the very beginning of the session- the understanding with the other parties which, as the head of a minority Government, he had seen to ,be an indispensable condition of his departure directly he took office. During the past fortnight, when the House has been working under great pressure and the shortness of the time has conduced to shortness of temper, the chief responsibility has been transferred to the Opposition parties, and their differences of opinion as to which of them is tlie more to blame for the waste of time has aggravated the evil which they agree to deplore. The painfulness of the process has been to some extent redeemed by its humour, which closely resembles that of the noisy audience described in "Rejected Addresses." Those of them who shouted to the others to keep silence evoked the sage comment.from the parodist of Crabbe:—

He who in quest of quiet "silence" hoots Is apt to make the hubbub he imputes. As these troubles are now at an end, and the Prime Minister has withdrawn the suspension of his arrangements for attending tlie Imperial Conference, which, with a haste contrasting strangely with his previous leisurely pace, he had announced last week, there is no need to say anything more about tlie subject except in so far as it points a permanent moral. In its relation to the Imperial Conference of 1930 the unfortunate episode has terminated happily enough, but the same cannot be said of its effect either upon the business of the session or upon future sittings of the Imperial Conference. In order to enable its Prime Ministers to attend these Conferences the most distant of the Dominions has always had to make some sacrifice in the postponement of domestic business and the cramping of legislative and even administrative enterprise, and there has always been a small minority of croakers to ask, "What's the good?" and to suggest that the sacrifice was too heavy. But never has there been such a conflict of interests as on the present occasion—a conflict not merely between the parochial and the Imperial, as it has mostly been hitherto, but between the national and the Imperial.

In the Finance Bill, the Customs Bill, and the Uenmployment Billmeasures dealing in drastic fashion with matters of supreme importance and difficulty—Parliament has had a trio of problems before it as formidable as any of its predecessors ever had. Regarding two of these measures the House of Representatives has said its last word, and the suspense of the third will not prevent Mr. Forbes from gelling away. So far therefore as the Imperial Conference of 1930 is concerned the course is clear, but who can say what price the country has yet to pay for the undetected blunders in complicated tasks rushed through with blind speed? And who cannot see that when tlie inevitable discoveries are made the usual recriminations between the parties as to the responsibility will not prevent some of their spokesmen from finding common ground in unloading it all on to an innocent fourth party —the Imperial Conference? What the Conference is now gaining at the expense of our domestic legislation it may thus have to repay with interest later on. While therefore we may rejoice that instability, mismanagement, and confusion will not on this occasion prevent New Zealand from doing its duty by the Imperial Conference, it is to be hoped that our political leaders may take advantage of some lucid interval in the strife of parties to evolve a plan whereby the country may be represented at future Conferences without any of the heartburning and uncertainty which have nearly proved fatal during the. last few weeks. The understanding with the other leaders regarding the business of the House which Mr. Forbes was able to announce on the Bth instant will serve as at once an example and a warning. In its purpose of subordinating party strife to a great Imperial object it was excellent, but its structure was so loose, and it was applied so late, that it barely stood the storm. Iv other words, -it was admirable in so far as Lit was an understanding, but in the

loopholes that it provided for misunderstanding it was very much the reverse. Besides announcing his own intention to attend the Imperial Conference the Prime Minister's statement yesterday also answered the question, "Who goes Home?" in its broadest sense. The most important of his companions will be Sir Thomas Sidey. Though Sir Thomas may not be as well versed in constitutional law as Sir John Findlay or Sir Francis Bell, who rendered previous Prime Ministers a similar service, his official position as Attorney-General and his general knowledge both of law and of affairs make the choice eminently proper, if not inevitable. Nor will his generous determination not to put the country to any expense, because he was taking the journey in any case for the benefit of his health, lead anybody to fear that the advice he gives to the Prime Minister at the Conference will confirm the superstition that a legal opinion which costs nothing is worth nothing. The only other of the Prime Minis* ter's colleagues who had any claim to accompany him is the Minister of What He Terms Defence. Mr. Cobbe is certainly well qualified to explain to the Imperial Conference the thoroughness of the Government's views on disarmament; but as the Minister of Railways says that the real object of the Defence Amendment Bill is "to test out the Volunteer system," Mr. Cobbe has work enough to keep him busy here. The inclusion of Dr. Craig, Comptroller of Customs, has in view, as Mr. Forbes says, the negotiation of trade agreements with Canada'and with France, and in Mr. F. D. Thomson—rwho is now an expert on Imperial Conferences—and Mr. C. A. Berendsen Mr. Forbes will have two other indispensable advisers. A Prime Minister on his first official visit to London would be lost without them.