LATE SIR JOHN SALMOND.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIV, Issue 278, 4 November 1924, Page 3

LATE SIR JOHN SALMOND.

c SERVICES TO THE EMPIRE l A “TIMES” APPBECIATION. London, Sept. 24. Appreciative reference is made in “The Times” to the late Sir John Salmond. “By his death,” says the writer, j “New Zealand and the Empire lose a distinguished jurist who devoted all his ( services towards the maintnance and improvement of Imperial relations. His ’ Imperialism was essentially that of the ’ Massey school—while exceedingly jealous of the national status of his Dominion, he considered that in peace as well as in war the Empire should speak to the outside world through the common mouthpice of the British Government. “Late in 1921 he was appointed to re. present New Zealand at the Disarmament Conference, and he landed at ‘ Vancouver only four days before the “ first meeting. The night before the steamer Niagara reached port he was walking the deck —a grave, academic 1 figure, suggestive of the university professor he had once been rather than of the Judge that he was. ‘And what’— asked his companion—‘and what is New 1 Zealand’s attitude going to be towards 4 disarmament in the Pacific?’ 4 “Salmond halted in his stride, and s swung round on his heel. ‘New Zea- ' land’s attitude,’ he said, ‘is going to be 3 the Empire attitude, and I can’t tell * what we are going to do until Balfour .tells me what England wants us to do.’ j But he was far from being a jingoist, 1 and not one of the Dominion delegates 1 at Washington was keener in pressing ’ the claims of the country he represent- , ed. His point was that the Imperial point ot view should be adjusted in a ‘family conference’ beforehand, and 1 that there should be no clash of interest and demands between the Mother 1 Country and the Dominions in the eyes ’ of the outside world. With certain 1 limitations, Salmond’s theory was the theory generally accepted in New Zealand and the confidence that was re- ' posed to him by Mr Massey is reflected in the many utterances of the Prime Minister defining the foreign policy of , his Government. “To lawyers all over the world, however, Salmond’s considerable reputation rests upon his services to law rather than his services in the realm of Imperial politics. His books on jurisprudence and the law of torts are known . as standard works all over the Empire and have reached many editions.” j The writer goes on to speak of Sir John Salmond’s career, and then recalls that he suggested after the Washington Conference that the destruction of the doomed battleships should be carried out as a public and ceremonial act. “The New Zealand,” says “The Times,’’ “was lying at Rosyth at tho time, and although there was considerable support for the suggestion that she should make a last voyage to the Dominion that gave her to the Empire and be sunk in her home waters, such a plan was found impracticable. But it was only last year while the Special j Service Squadron was in Sydney Harbour that the sister Dominion of Australia adopted Sir John Salmond’s idea, and the great battle-cruiser of the Commonwealth went down with wreaths on her quarter-dpek and the thunder of a salvo above her.”— (Christchurch “Press” correspondent).