RETURNED' MINISTERS

Evening Star, Issue 16460, 26 June 1917, Page 6

RETURNED' MINISTERS

SPEECHES AT CIVIC FUNCTION'. Mr Massey, in responding to the civic luncheon , tendered to himself ' And Sir Joseph Ward at Auckland yesterday, saidNew Zealand stood high in the estimation of all at Homo because of the reputation for courage borne by. our soldiers, and in future New Zealand'would more than hold her own among the Dominions, and in many ways take the lead. Mr Massey alluded to his and Sir Joseph Ward’s work at Home/ Their most important duty was taking part in the War Cabinet. For obvious reasons he could not divulge the eeo-, rets of the Cabinet or the Conference. One important feature of the.Conference was that it had set a precedent,® and it would be followed up. This Imperial Conference, which would not be a war conference, would bo held annually. At that conference representatives of the various dominions and dependencies would be present, and among them; would also bo the representatives of that great Empire, India, which had done so much since the outbreak of the war. Hitherto' some 17 millions of British people scattered through the dominions had-had no representation on the Imperial Council, but this would not happen again, and in future, instead of dependencies of the Empire, they would become partners.

Alluding to the administration of Sir James Allen and his colleagues, Mr Moseey congratulated tho former on tho work, he had done. It was not to be expected that we could net through the war without troubles and difficulties, hut when they did como we had to meet them. We must go on.until the power of.Germany was broken, because if we did not break Germany, Germany would break ue. To-day nothing mattered except winning tho war. No matter what the hardships, the country could recover so long as we did nothing in the way of slackening off in our determination to go right through and make it impossible for Germany to again perpetrate tlio horrors of the past throo years. Sir Joseph Ward referred to the death of Dr M'Nab, and paid a tribute to the integrity and capability of the lata Minister After he had congratulated Sir James Allen and Mr Myers on the success of their administration during tho Prime Minister’s absence, Sir Joseph said what lie had seen in Britain satisfied him that the war.had been tho_rr]-eat3st educator and regenerator the Empire had over experienced. In three years it had solidified ■ the Empire, as all Press writing and public speeches in the past had never been able to do. He hod como homo quite satisfied that deep down within the mass of the people of the Empire was a determination never to take their teeth from the hide of the enemy until they had “cruellod” him. He had been quito satisfied from tho spirit of the wounded in the hospitals and of the fighting men in the trenches that such was the animating spirit of the New Zealanders at tho front.' —An Optimistic View.— Sir Joseph touched on the achievements of tho Empire iu arms, and its men and munitions. “ Have no fear of the result of the war, he proceeded. “America has filled the one possible weakness that might have arisen in a year or two, and finandaily the Mother Land will be able to see the war right through.” Sir Joseph said that when the war ended we would have to commence to build up the commercial fabric of the Empire, which would be one of the most difficult problems that wc had to face As for the United States, they would have to treat that country as if it were part of the Empire. Those who in the past had taken part in the fight of Freetrade v. Protection in the Old Country would have to forget their differences and agree upon a. common-sense commercial policy in the best interests of the Lmmre.

Referring to the pending war loan, Sir Joseph said that a large sum would be necessary-, and he appealed to business men "1 tllen ‘ own interests, as well as those of the State, not to assist anv movement tqr raising tho rates of interest to an abnormal extent. Tho trade conditions ot ti ie Dominion after the war were likely to be very favorable. There would be much to_ do in rebuilding the devastatwl countries and transferring men from tie Old Country, and he honed that all the Dominions would share.’ Contracts for enormous amounts had been entered into already by the British Government. I do not believe we are going to haVe a. money market for long after the l' ar - * le said. “ Within two years after it ends we are going to have cheap monev. borne people think otherwise but I do Are n Sir Jose P h Eaid that people in tho Uld Country who before the war invested millions and millions in Germany and other Continental countries would require an outlet for their capital. These people were now providing over £450,000,000 of nen money for fresh investment after the war. There would be no great navies to be built or great armies that the cxigenoies of the great war had necessitated. New Zealand had provided during the last three years tor the war and other purposes no less than from £12,000.000 to £15,000,000. , Altogether the prospects for the successful conduct of New Zealand’s ordinary affairs were very bricht indeed. . ■ SIR JOSEPH WARD INTERVIEWED. WIDE RANGE OF SUBJECTS DISCUSSED. In the course of an interview at Auckland yesterday Sir Joseph Ward said : “ , ,omc idea of the very serious view of the position in Britain mav be gathered when I say that for months in England the very strictest economy lias been used in regard to food supplies. Especially does this apply to articles that have to be brought from overseas. In our own case we were limited to half a slice of bread per head per meal, to 2oz of meat, ojid a very small lump of sugar; in fact, the price of sugar apportioned w:is a-third the size of an ordinary lump of lonf sugar, and those who took sugar with their porridge had to make the same piece of sugar suffice both for tea or coffee and porridge as veil. 1 mention this merely to give some indication of the alertness of the Home authorities in their fixed detarmination to prevent deliberate starvation of the British Isles by the sinking of mcrclianfc ships by tho ouemv. Tho activity of the British farmers and others throughout the United Kingdom in ploughing land not previously used for productive purposes and sowing chiefly wheat is another illustration of what was being -done to meet the submarine menace. Although tho enemy campaign against tho morcontile marine lias been bad as far as the Allies are concerned, tho percentage of ships destroyed is. after all, not such a very large on®, and the building of vessels to SI! the gaps in Great Britain, Canada,, and the United States will, it is hoped, more than compensate for the destruction that has been carried out. Even with this Realised, however, there will, no doubt, bo a shortage of ships for carrying on the trade of the world ‘after the war, and it will take some years to have the necessary transport provision made to carrv tho world’s commerce. The people of New Zealand, in common with those ofother parts of the Empire, have suffered greatly by the shortage of steamers necessary to carry their produce to the Old Country. ’’ ' ’

Sir Joseph continued : “It has not been for want of representations from the Prime "Minister and myself in Britain that there have not been enough steamers to cany on our important trade requirements. The fact remains, however, that Xew Zealand would have been in a'much worse position had wo .not been on the spot to personally impress upon the British Government, and especially the Shipping Ministry, the needs and requirements of the Dominion as a producing country.” ' °

Sir Joseph Ward added : “ The general work of the conference was most important. At a former conference I attended, the Government of the day as a matter of policy were opposed to preference. and the memorable phrase' that ‘the door was slammed, barred, and bolted against the Overseas Dominions ’ voiced the ■ views held by the then Government. The war.,again, is responsible for a great change of public ouinion.' The present Government, of Groat' Britain are m favor of preference, and the resolution that was unanimously carried by the conference and also previously agreed to in

the War 'Cabinet;- this/Smportanfc: matter v a.‘fiuther. stage . forward. Its further ■devdlopmenbV'musV- »pcessarily stand oVer until; after-the ,as it is clearly impossible' for, any of"the Overseas Dominions to ihtelligeritly discuss terms of preference : until;,-we hno\v what tho fiscal policy; of-' Great ißr’tain 'is to be. Again, British.; MiniateVs bahnot be expected to turn off. from their all important war dutie^to’iubniit, proposals of what is to be fiscal ..system until after the war is Chatting, about incidents of the trip, Sir Joseph Ward said that coming across Canada he stayed over at Calgan-y. Their car was taken off tho train and another substituted, but when the train reached a distance of .40 miles on it went over a bank owing, to a ■-washout in the Rocky Mountains, and the engine and the*carriage that took the place of • the one Sir Joseph’s party had travelled in were derailed, and rolled down a gully, being damaged severely. - “ I must confess to a feeling of surprise at hearing that exception has been taken to the long absence from the- Dominion of the Prime Minister and my self,” said Sir Joseph Ward. “ Our intention was to leave England on our returrf journey in December, 1916. Such, however, were the conditions brought about by the war and the changes that were occurring in London day by day after our arrival there, that the original idea of an early return had to be abandoned, and in deference to the request of the newly-formed British Govermnenl under Mr Lloyd George it was necessary, for us to prolong our stay. It was considered desirable that Mr Massey and myself should remain in England, and that representatives from the absent oversea countries should be invited to tako part in .connection with vital matters affecting the war and the Empire as a whole. Obviously our clear duty under these extraordinary circumstances Was to remain at the heart of the Empire arid occupy seats in the War Cabinet, as to attend the Imperial War There was nothing in the nature. of -a' holiday about our visit; it was a.case of hard and continuous duty under circumstances for from the ordinary. Attending to important matters affecting the products of Xow Zealand and the prices to be paid for them was in itself a difficult task, but it was only one of the many matter;? that took up much time and the closest attention, so that the result, would not be detrimental to Now Zealand.” ’

Sir Joseph stated that tho war conditions had made travelling to and from England by any route both difficult and dangerous. Both .goingiand coming across, vessels he had travelled ou crossed the ocean absolutely without lights, not even navigation lights being shown. He described this as somewhat uncanny, as, apart from the submarine and float mine dangers, there was the added danger of collision. A vessel left an English port of departure after nightfall, and ordinary passengers did not know until thev were on board the name of the vessel on which they wore to iiinky the journey. In the majority of cases tho passengers are told to travel by some special train from a central railway station, and they do not even know the port of embarkation. Once on board, they often remain in port or out in the stream for several davs perhaps a- week, and no communication is allowed with the shore—this being done, of course, to prevent information drifting to the enemy. “We passed right through the .danger zone,” he continued, “and some idea of the real danger mav be gleaned from the fact that an B,OCO-ton vessel which we passed the first day out at about noon, going in the same direction as our ship, was torpedoed shortly after we passed hen Another phase is that of the lifebelt. Every passenger is compelled to wear a lifebelt throughout the whole trip across, and it is rather an interestiii"sight to see passengers filing into the saloon for meals with lifebelts in their hands. They are carried about iust in o same way as a hat. and the passengers are never without their belts; and so danger is being constantly impressed upon them. The boats are all swung out and ready to be immediately lowered It wiil be understood, therefore, what precautions are being everywhere taken in regard to possible accident.” b

THE FUTURE OF FIJI. [Per United Press Association.]

. . , , AUCKLAND, June 25. A cablegram from Fiji, dated June 22 received here, states that Mr Massey and at 1 ’ J ° se P' l 'MM'd "ere entertained there. Mr Massey hinted at the annexation of Fiji by Aew Zealand.

Uh.cn the above message was shown to the Prime Munster, Mr Massey said his remarks at Suva did not bear the con struction that had been placed upon them. , ho sUlt<Kl . “was that I ' n t- h« not far distant future we should be able to arrive at a satis™""derstanding with Fiji. I pointed f-nun l h K? e open: "3 of t-he Panama G'anal, which was certain to be a tremendous success, meant the onenin/r of a new era for the Pacific, and certainly it°wl aSS:f tl m r he P rosperit y Fiii. as it MS in the direct track between ' New nni^of 1 a 7w tho f anu! ’ t!u,s making it a poit of call for steamers trading through Britain"” fT ° m ' th ° Dominkm "to Groat