The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 1911.

Evening Star, Issue 14503, 1 March 1911, Page 4

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 1911.

Many of our readers will retain a vivid remembrance of R. L. •' Dr Jekyl! " Stevenson's grim story and " Mr Hyde "of personal transformaat Miiton. tion, or of dual character in a single personality —"Tho strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde." " Mr Hyde " was perverse, unscrupulous, and malignant; " Dr JekyM " was sensible, conscientious, and huinana: yet they were one and the same individual. This powerful study in the ''abysmal depths of personality" is recalled to our mind by a perusal of the address dclirored at Milton last night by Mr James Allen. The latter part of the. speech was devoted to Imperial concerns, and at this -stage Mr Allen may be said to have assumed the pleasing role of "Dr Jekyll." His tone was patriotic, reasonable, and even gracious. Nothing could have been in better taste than his allusion to the Prime Minister's coming embassy. He hoped the Prime Minister would realise that he was going Home fully accredited by every one of them. They raised no party cry and no party question when the Prime Minister went to represent them in eo great a gathering as an Imperial Conference. "I hope," said Mr Allen, "ho will come back to us in full health and strength, having learned all that is to be learned from the great

debate that will take place there, and I hope he will he able to give to bis people the benefit of the discusaions that take place, in order that we may educate ourselves to a better understanding of this

great question." After a brief but valuable dissertation on the resolutions to be submitted by the New Zealand representative at the Imperial Conference, Mr Allen observed that he was unablo ("on account of lack of time") to deal further with the subject on that occasion. But "Dr Jekyll," who is an acknowledged authority on Imperial questions, would have had plenty of time to deal exhaustively with his special topio if "Mr Hyde," whoso salient characteristic is bitter partisanship, had not previously been allowed to wa6te over an hour in jejune and paradoxical criticism of Government policy and finance. Wo do hope that Mr Allen will keep his two political characters 6eparato in future. W© are not sanguine enough to suppose that it is possible for him to get rid of "Mr Hyde"—it is too lato in the day for 6uch a radical ejectment —but he might at least follow Mr Malcolm' 3 example, and refrain from including party misrepresentation and sound Imperial reflections in the same address. It is to be feared that many readers, repelled by the audacious sophistry of the earlier passages, would put the paper aside in disgust without having reached Mr Allen's remarks on the Imperial Conference. Yet this would be a pity, for when the member for Bruce is able to get away from "Hyde" and the exigencies of a rather desperate Opposition party ho can bo admirably reasonable and cogent. Wo are glad to notice that ho agrees with Sir Joseph Ward that non-confidential subjects at the Conference should bo discussed in the presence of the Press, if only in the interests of Imperialist education. In answer to a question in the • House of Commons on Monday Mr Asquith stated that the members of tho Conference would themselves decide whether tho Press should be admitted to non-confidential debates. This is satisfactory, if it means that the Government will exercise no pressure, and we entertain little doubt that the delegates will pronounce in favor of a reasonable measure of publicity. Without definitely endorsing Mr Allen's scheme for an Imperial Secretariat, with tho High Commissioners as representatives of the Dominions, we think that his views and arguments should be carefully and respectfully considered by Sir Joseph Ward and other colonhl delegates. Having paid our sincere respects to "Dr Jekyll," we are constrained to add that in tho earlier portions of the Milton address "Mr Hyde" was at his very worst. A certain courage, of the reckless, devil-may-care order, is tho nearest approach to a meritorious quality wo can detect in this strange farrago of misrepresentation and invective. Courageous it certainly was (after tho recent speeches of the Primo Minister, the Attorney-General, and tho Minister of Railways) to reiterate Mr Massey's ill-starred taunt concerning "a Ministry of humbugs.'' That perverse phrase served as the text and tho refrain of Mr Millar's convincing dofence of Liberal policy at Alexandra, and Mr Allen must surely have neglected to study the Minister's remarks and illustrations. His eagerness to discredit the Ward Government at all costs lands him in comical inconsistencies. Ho represents the Government as being at once " taihoa" and " plunging " ; and, by way of third variation, "there is no policy." Of course, it (assuming it to exist) is a bad policy—otherwise thero would be no necessity for a Massoy Government i nevertheless it has been "borrowed from the Opposition." Mr Allen harps on the circumstance of the present Government being virtually a " continuous Ministry." We have no particular objection to the term, which, after all, does not possess a" very dire significance. It is quite true that Liberal Ministers have been "continuously" in office for twenty years, and that a majority of the electors have " continuously "—on seven successive occasions—notified their desire that this state of matters should not be disturbed.