The Hawera Star TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 1925. CAN YOU SOLVE THIS ONE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 14 April 1925, Page 4

The Hawera Star

TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 1925. CAN YOU SOLVE THIS ONE

Delivered every evening by 5 o’clock -a Hawera, iUabaia. Normanby, Okaiawo, Elthani, Mangatnki. Kaponga, Alton. TTurleyviUe, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia. Whakatna ra, Ohangai. Meremere, Fra.-er Road, and Ararata.

We have come again to the time of y-ear when the popular hobby- is the reconstruction of society, and the laying of foundations for a new world. Mr Tom Brindle in Wellington, Mr ,T. Maxton, M.P., in London, and certain Communist gentlemen in Ottawa, are all in to-day’s news with coats off and sleeves rolled up in readiness for the Herculean task before them. And, of course, it is necessary to clear the ground first. The unfortunate part of it is that Mr Brindle, Mr Maxton and the Canadian gentlemen aforesaid seem each to have conflicting ideas as to the ground to be cleureijl, and the manner of getting it ready- for the foundations. We have Mr Brindle’s assurance that the late Labour Government in Britain had a most successful term of office. Mr Brindle’s brethren in England, on the other hand, cannot find nasty names enough to hurl at Mr Ramsay MacDonald and his colleagues,-on account of their refusal to allow Communistic propaganda to be broadcast- over the Kingdom. And Mr Brindle’s party — to complicate the issue a little further —has meantime refused admission to New Zealand Communists. Canada

gives the position another twist, because there Communism has been installed at the helm of Labour, and the Canadian delegates to a conference of British Empire Labour Parties, to be held next June, are under orders to move requesting the indepondenee of colonial and semi-colonial (whatever that may mean) portions of the Empire. All this must be most exasperating to poor Mr Brindle, for to the disinterested outsider—who need not worry- over the colossal ineonsistency of the whole business —it has crossword and jig-saw puzzles beaten to a standstill. Mr Brindle is shaking hands with Mr MacDonald, and has asked his Communist callers to sit in the waiting room for a little. Mr MacDonald, for his part, lias kicked the British Communists downstairs with

the greatest glee, and seems all the while to be wishing that lie wore boots a couple of sizes heavier. The Socialists at the British Labour conference are really angry with Mr MacDonald for this; but then Mr Brindle—who, you will remember, is still clasping Mr MacDonald’s hand —is, on his own admission, one of the “useful people desiring reconstruction on constitutional lines towards a socialistic state’’ in New Zealand, and so presumably in sympathy with the British Socialists. But let us attempt solution from another angle. Mr MacDonald, Mr ,J. 11. Thomas and Mr ,T. It. Clynes —all members of the late “successful” British Government — have publicly associated themselves with the Empire. Mr Thomas especially, and Mr MacDonald’s son Malcolm, now in this country, have been proud to catch a glimpse of the Empire’s greatness. It is snd to think so, but these two prominent British Labourites must henceforth be quite without the pale so far as the Canadian- division tff their party is concerned. Mr Brindle very discreetly refrained from any reference to the Empire It would be interesting to hear what he thinks of

it, if, indeed, he deems it worthy of notice. However, as the two great political parties which have watched over the growth of the Empire from Newfoundland to Iraq are now lumped together (in the Brindlean iihilosopliy) as the force “upholding private monopoly in land and capital,’’ it may be assumed that the Empire, in the development of whose lands capital has played so large a part, is not to be spoken of in really polite political circles. This question of capital puts another catch into the puzzle. Only a week or so back Mr MacDonald said he believed in private capital, for only thereby could a man win the independence which he coveted, independence both of action and of thought. After that, can Mr MacDonald hope to escape perdition when the lists are checked over in Wellington? One more problem to complete the befogging of the onlooker’s brain: “Complete independence” is what Canadian Labour is so anxious to bestow upon the constituent parts of the Empire. If any particular reasons for that independence have been advaned, they have not been considered worth cabling, so we are left to assume that the goal is independence merely for its own sake. And what a boon to the world that independence would be! Think who would welcome it—Japan (Australia

has only a tiny navy and Canada practically none), Denmark (her cheese and butter are next door to the British market, and need fear no competition from an “independent” country twelve thousand miles distant), the Argentine (who could then have all the British capital she wanted), the United States (no longer would preference be given to British imports to Australia. and New, Zealand. Undoubtedly the world would ‘ rejoice. Probably' it would not concern the Canadian Communists if former British colonies did not share in the rejoicing. They would have established the god of Independence, and all would be well. No, not all; for Mr Brindle refuses to admit the Communists to his party until they accept “without reservation” the platform- of the Labour Party —which platform is- liable to be changed by the conference every' year. In plain English, Mr Brindle’s party does not believe in independence. So there is: the whole crowd of them wallowing deeper in the mud than ever —and not so much as one stone in position for the foundations of the new world.