WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 15 May 1933, Page 8

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE LONDON CONFERENCE.

NEW ZEALAND’S REPRESENTATION.

(Special to “Guardian.”)

WELLINGTON, May 10.

It was expected more than a month ago that Air Forbes would consider it necessary for hint to l>e present in peiso'n at the World Economic and Monetary Conference to be opened in London on June 12th. Last night it was formally announced that the Prime Minister would leave for his destination on Friday next accompanied by Mr Robert Masters, the Minister of Education, Industries and Commerce; .Mr G. C: Rodda, ihe Assistant Secretary of the Treasury ; Professor A. H. rocker, economist of Canterbury University College, and Mr C. A. Jeffery, private secretary to the Prime Minister. Tt will be necessary for the members of the delegation to leave Wellington bw-the Rangitata on Friday" next, and f.or '.the epeed of the mail steamer to' be accelerated by a couple of days if they are .to he present at the opening of the proceedings of the Conference.

ACTING PRIME MINISTER.

In announcing the.- determination of the Government to dispatch the dele- - i Lrjfi Pi on—'which, byo*bflnW a Yi was some IfbpF -1 weeks ,old-4*Mri.Jfl«rbqs was care*!f!ui ftb- explain thatr.tim-Minister of Finance and Customs had not been overlooked by his colleague. “The Right Hon. J. G. Coates,” he stated, “will be Acting Prime Minister during the absence of the delegation. Having regard to the importance cf the World Conference and the serious problems to b.o considered, Cabinet felt that it warranted the attendance of both myself and the Minister of Finance; hut having regard to the difficult position in the Dominion Mr Coates felt that he should remain behind.” This is quite in keeping with the spirit of the Minister of Finance, who, in view of the importance of his portfolio, well might have urged that his immediate responsibilities lay in London.

CRITICISM.

The morning paper is not altogether pleased with the selection of the Dominion’s delegates. “It would, be interesting,” it says “to know on what principle the Ministers were selected. Perusal of the agenda shows that the Conference • will have to do mainly with tariffs and financial questions. In the circumstances the logical representative should be the Minister of Customs aiid Finance, Mr ..Coates.. . . Surely the presence of two Ministers, two secretaries, a /professor of; economics and perhaps other supernumarie? are not required.” The inclusion pf an economist' seems especially gratuitous since some''thirty odd experts of this character have been employed by tile promoters of the Conference during the last' eight months. The “Dominion”' pfbdict-s that the New Zealand delegates probably will not he called upon to do much mor.g than assent or’dissent on particular issues. Ore Minister, it maintains, might do this.

NEW BROOM.

• Both Mr Coates and. Mr Forbes, each in his capacity of Prime Minister, have attended an Imperial Conference, and it is being suggested that in view of this fact some other member of the Cabinet might he given the privilege of representing the Dominion at the Economic and Monetary Conference in London:- The affairs “of the country are hot in such a condition that the i Prime Ministef/jcan, ; separate himself ■froth them fopjifojur .or five months 'ivitbout somev.cpptpunction. It is too late in the,day,ohowever, for him to and over to Mr Masters or to any other member of the Cabinet, the additional burden lie lias undertaken for himself ; but it is to be honed that liis colleague in this excursion will be entrusted with’a fair share of the burdens his chief has set aside for himself.