ACTION CRITICISED

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 144, 21 June 1938, Page 8

ACTION CRITICISED

MR. JORDAN AT GENEVA

LONE VOICE OF THE EMPIRE

The action of Mr. W. J. Jordan, High Commissioner for New Zealand, in taking up a critical attitude at Geneva on matters which came before the League of Nations Council recently was mentioned by Mr. C. H. Weston, K.C., president of the National Party, in his address at Kilbirnie last night when introducing the National Party candidate for the Wellington East seat, Mr, W- L. Barker. At Geneva, said Mr. Weston, Mr. Jordan had stood alone. A voice: Why shouldn't he? The members of the Labour Party had always shown loyalty to one another, Mr. Weston said, and they were united in their own interests, but when it came to the British Empire they were not united. (Cries of "No.") "As far as New Zealand is concerned," said Mr. Weston, "they are not even loyal to it. (Dissent.) In all of the crises the country had passed through they have played the obstructionists." LABOUR AND THE WAR. To more cries of dissent, Mr. Weston asked if the interrupters could deny that most of the members of the Labour Party had not served in the war. A voice: We won it. In the depression, said Mr. Weston, the Labour members watched their own class suffer rather than lend a hand. (Further cries of protest.) "Let us get back to Mr. Jordan," said Mr. Weston. "Let Mr. Jordan look after himself,' said a woman. "Give us your policy." Mr. Jordan, continued Mr. Weston, had let the Empire down at Geneva. The British Government had an immense responsibility to avoid war, and, if it were unavoidable, to face it with a united front. "Italy was hesitating in her alliance with Germany," said Mr. Weston. "The moment was ripe to make friends with > her, but, as usual in a compromise, England had to give way on somej points. One was recognition of thef conquest of Abyssinia; the conquest was an accomplished fact, and nothing could undo it. Can we blame Mr. Chamberlain for agreeing under thdse circumstances? Yet Mr. Jordan, at a time when the appearance of unityi'was so important, showed actual disunity. We can only draw two conclusions: either the New Zealand Government has no grip of foreign affairs,/or it wanted the opportunity of winning a few votes in New Zealand at -the expense of the security of the: British Empire."