THE PREMIER’S HEALTH

Evening Star, Issue 20388, 21 January 1930, Page 7

THE PREMIER’S HEALTH

A TRIP TO ROTORUA PROBABLE EARLY SESSION IMPERIAL CONFERENCE THIS YEAR [Special to the ' Star.’] WELLINGTON, January 20. To-morrow (Tuesday) tbo Prime Minister (Sir Joseph Ward) leaves Wellington for Rotorua. He has sufficiently recovered his physical strength to move about, and his main concern now is to get treatment for the muscles of his legs, which have given him considerable trouble. He anticipates that, with massage treatment and baths, ins vigour' will be fully restored, and that ho will be able to take his usual active part in the' administration. . For several weeks the Prime Munster, in his Heretaunga home, has been daily receiving a number of visitors, including his departmental heads and members of Cabinet, and there is a very opimistio feeling regarding his ability to make a good recovery. Such a happy event will have immediate political results of high importance. It is generally known that the next meeting of tho Imperial Conference takes place this year, and that tho date has been tentatively fixed for June. Therefore, it may be taken for granted that, with improved health, Sir Joseph Ward’s plans will provide for the calling of Parliament at an early date, probably in February, for a short session devoted exclusively to finance, and designed to bridge the gap between the usual date for the session’s opening (which is the end of June), enabling the ordinary business meeting of Parliament to commence in August. IMPERIAL CONFERENCE RECORD Sir Joseph Ward’s reappearance at an Imperial Conference will create an interesting'lmperial record, for if he attends tho 1930 gathering of Prime Ministers, it will be the thirteenth occasion of that kind. He was Prime Minister when he attended his tenth Imperial Conference in 1911, and he accompanied the late Mr Massey as a member ' of the War Coalition Government to the Imperial War Cabinet meetings in 1916, and to the Peace Conference of 1919. As a member of the Imperial Conference of 1911, tho present Prime Minister introduced his scheme for an Imperial Council. It was not adopted, principally owing to the fear that such an organisation would overlap the directly representative Parliaments of the Empire. Sir Joseph Ward, however, contended that he neverN contemplated the possibility of his plan being accepted as an organised system, but that it affirmed the necessity of an Imperial organisation, particularly for defence. Events to a great extent justified his attitude, because effective Imperial co-operation for the use of the navies of the Empire under one command in time of war was evolved long before stern necessity required this plan, while an Imperial War Cabinet, representative of all parts of the Empire, was called together during the Great War, New Zealand’s representatives being the former Prime Minister (Mr Massey) and his colleague in the National Government (Sir Joseph Ward). ...