Imperial Conference, Singapore, Secret Diplomacy

Maoriland Worker, Volume 13, Issue 31, 1 August 1923, Page 8

Imperial Conference, Singapore, Secret Diplomacy

j "■ JRitsßi moving his amendment that • Zealand delegate to the Im- ~ should, be instruct'*2reg9|X: matters of front-rank import- ' SGC_ as the League of Nations, > . Peace, relations with etc. to Mr. Wilford's amendthe Address-ln-Reply, Mr. J. '. ALP,, Auckland East, de'ifrSNft the following speech. •»■•** "\ 33efore tonching upon the ConferI want to .appeal to the Prime _.a^B_t*er, ,s OT to those' who are respon*_P e •^ jr '^i* 1 Zealand's representa-~-J|Bpi..aF-~i3ie : Conference, to see that .jSwpij^'!.the Conference occurs decent of what transpires are subI'igill'ed. to the press, so that members •S^S- 08 ' Parliament of tbis co untry can ifwCtow' from day to day the disens•f llghs that take place. We all reVlmimber what occurred during past * CflMelrences: the people were posi--1 _v_y ignored. The Conference sat and v/e heard little in this country about the deliberations. The sort of siiticle we read in the press during. Qe Conference dealt with such txifies •as whether the Hon. the Prime Minis- < Jer should call Mr. Winston Churchill * / Winnie" and whether Mr. Churchill should call the Hon. the Prime Mm•- --• ' fster "William." That is the sort of reference that was cabled out to the press. We had references to the fact that Mr. Hughes had been bowling googlies to some little boys in country lanes. We had accounts from the Savoy and Cecil Hotels where -the Prime Minister stayed, and duchesses, and red tape, and indigestion seemed to he mixed up in a way that promised rather alarming results from the Conference as far as we were concerned ;.£>' CABLE PUERILITIES. On the day on which the last Conference opened we read this rather peculiar paragraph in the press:— ■> -"Mr. Massey's entourage was the most impressive of all, a uniformed chauffeur and a soldier-like commissionaire attending. Mr. Hughes was punctual for once, arriving on the stroke of noon, frock-coated and tophatted. He looked very serious, and j was sunburned after a week-end on the river. The last to come was Mr. ' A. Meighan,. of Canada, the youngest • Prime Minister, and immediately following was- a huge laundry wagon which drew up at No. 10, greatly amusing the crowd, who suggested that it had brought the dirty linen to be washed. Mr. Churchill, with bent shoulders, and wearing a soft hat, walked through -the barrier as the Conference commenced. Viscount ' -Haldane, also stooping greatly, ex- • changed a few words at the entrance as Mr. Lloyd George made the formal ' Introductions. .A dove perched on the window, augured well for the Conference." That is the sort of cable reference we receive from Great Britain during any Conference. To my mind the people of New Zealand are entitled -to pare than that. ' However, on the day when Conference commenced its deliberations this is the class of cablowe received from London: — "The Conference of Prime Ministers resumed discussion to-day of -,:. foreign policy, all the delegates speaking at length on questions confiden. _. tial and involving the most intimate, relations. It was decided to preserve the closest secrecy." I think we are. entitled to get decent reports from time to time. BIPEKIALTSW. A>'l» DO3IEBTK'. INTERESTS. The coming Conference is of special importance to the people of this country because oi: its intimate bearing on our domestic politics. It is absurd for members of the House to come to Wellington and talk about housing and roading and development policies and at the same time to send Prime Ministers to Conferences with power to pledge the country to .expenditure and commitments that will make our domestic policy impossible. That is what may possibly happen at the com/vng Conference. It is because of that ■ that this lack of discussion of ""the Conference is to be deprecated. Th-a Conference may very well decide many issues. This House may paa Housing Bills and Pension Bills, but the Conference may decide that we are to spend our money on battleships, on increased naval contributions, and on fortifications in Singapore. We cannot eat our cake and • have it. We cannot waste money on Increased naval and defence expenditure, and at the same time have that money to .spend on the building of houses in New Zealand. The Hon, the Minister oi Education has sug-

gested that we should make a grant of £ 100,000 for the purpose of assisting in the fortification of Singapore. Before that _rant. has long been made the Labour Party will see that the whole of this country hears about it, and the people will soon realise that they cannot have both fortifications in Asia and houses in New Zealand

THE SINGAPORE EXTRAYAGAffGB Now, if the Prime Minister is prepared to trust the people, why did he not tell them about Singapore during the last election? Why did he not tell us we were pledged to spend £100,000 on, the fortification of Singapore? Why did he hot give the people an opportunity of discussing ;the question? He did not give the people that opportunity because he knows the people do not trust him, ( and he comes -forward now after his party has found a slender majority through securing the support of people elected to oppose them, and tells us about this grant in aid of the fortification. And whom is this fortification against? Is it against America? That seems to be unthinkable. Is it against Japan? Two years ago the Prime Minister said Japan was our friend, and we had to sign again the Anglo-Japanese Treaty. Yesterday Japan was our friend; to-day Japan is our enemy. Why? Is New .Zealand; to be dragged into this violent stampede towards armaments merely because a few professional militarists, who, if they have no enemy, are always on the look out for one, now suggest that Japan is our enemy? Would anyone suggest that America Is our enemy? I was reading an article in the "Japanese Chronicle" the other night, and I find that the inili-' tarist party in Japan have recently been, to a large extent, overthrown, that there is in power a party which is opposed to huge commitments for armaments, that this decision, to fortify. Singapore is playing into tho hands of the reactionaries, and that the people of Japan are interpreting i this intention to fortify Singapore not as an act of defence, but as an act of aggression. The public opinion of the people in Canada is against the fortification of Singapore. The public opinion of the Australian people -of the Australian Labour Party, which to-morrow will be the Australian Government —is opposed to the fortification of Singapore—to this throwing down of the gauntlet, as it were, to Japan. CANADIAN OPINION. The people of Canada are absolutely hostile to any expenditure upon armaments of any nature at all. Professor W. P. Kennedy, of Toronto, a Canadian authority on constitutional law, writing recently, said: — "I am confident that no Canadian Government will be able to pledge Canada to. any military or naval orto the Empire. ''Canadians think in terms of peace, and it will be surprising if Canada favours any new suggestions for a common defence policy. The English press must avoid thinking in terms of possible wars. The Empire, must rally round the idea of the League of Nations. Naval and military experts are dangerous folk.' "

To a representative of the Sydney "Sun" a leading Canadian in London said that this article reflected threefourths of Canadian public opinion. He said: — . ~

"The present Liberal Government Is carrying on the traditional Liberal policy on the' subject of an Imperial Navy. The Canadians, while supporting the British connection, emphatically oppose* Imperial defence commitments."

Ca-nada is hostile, South Africa Is hostile, the people of the Australian Labour Party, which to-morrow will be the Government of Australia, are hostile. The overwhelming majority of people of-Britain are hostile as represented by the vote recorded against these proposals by a Liberal and Labour combination in the House representing an overwhelming majority of the constituencies; but still, as the honourable member for Lyttelton says, while we can afford to spend £100,000 on Singapore, and while our Prime Minister can go away to Great Britain, and because he goes away uninstructed, can come back with an oil-burning, cruiser costing this country £500,000, we continue to breed a C 3 population. We spend millions of money on these outside fortification 1 ;! and call it defence, while we do nothing to help grow up in our midst a healthy, virile race in New Zealand, which, after all, Is the strongest defence we can have.

WIREPULLER BY DOWNING '■ STREET. It seems to mc that our naval policy is dictated. to the Prime Minister through Downing Street and. Government Boats are accepted, we find the country committed to fortifications, engaged in all sorts of defensive commitments long before these things are discussed in Parliament. The people and Parliament are ignored altogether. The idea seems to have grown up that although the people of New Zealand are fit to fight, are fit to lose their blood by wars brought about by Premiers' decisions at Conferences, they are not fit to govern. . . . We remember that it was not long after one of these Conferences that-we.had compulsory military service imposed upon us. We remember that it was after another:one of these Conferences that we gave a Dreadnought to the. Old Country without consulting Parliament. We know now that a result of the last Conference was to spring on to us a contribution for the fortification of Singapore, and while we have all these things sprung on to us, while we continue to pay money for all these purposes, we starve the producers of.this country. The Reform Party mind seems to run in a military rut. Reformers' can never look above •the question of battleships. They still talk about guns, and battleships, and bombs. They do not understand that if we spend, that £100,000 in development—for instance, in an industry like the sugar-beet industry, and other industries —we would make it possible for New Zealand to absorb a far greater population, we would enormously'increase the strength of our defence. I hope that when the Prima Minister goes to Great Britain, and Downing Street desires to impose an increased armament on this part of the Empire, that he . will at least fight against "that. RUHR AND REPARATIONS. I want to refer briefly to the position in the Ruhr. It is a remarkable j thing that although the Liberals in Great Britain are opposed to the advance in the Ruhr, the Liberal Party In this country seem to be out all tha time to justify the French. Sir Jo- j seph Ward at Tauranga, after ho had lightened his ship by throwing over proportional representation and the State Bank, tried to win the election ,by telling the people of Tauranga j that they had to squeeze Germany until they got the Versailles indemnity out of her. lam pleased to note that the Prime Minister, if he has not a hopeful outlook upon the question, at least seems to realise the liopelcss.ness of attempting to give France the sun and moon with all the planets thrown in. France seems to mc to be Intoxicated with Imperialism. She seems to have drawn on the Prussian jack-boots, and. has become as big a menace and bully in the world as was Prussia at her worst period of militarism. While the "war has resulted in almost the complete" disarmament of Germany, the war seema to have tremendously increased the number of men in the French army I wonder if any one would suggest that when New Zealanders went to France, shed their blood in France, died in France, were ehot and dis abled in France, it was contemplated that France would become, as a result of the victory of the Great War a menace to the peace of the world, and as dangerous as Germany onco was. Of course, I know that France talks about security, but we know that a great deal 'of this talk about security is clap-trap, that security cannot be brought to France merely by dominating down-trodden Germany. We know that domination will surely produce insecurity.. Wo know that security can only be brought about by the different peoples concerned in that European turmoil coming together and trying to bring about some satisfactory and reconciliatory solution of affairs. MASSEY'S TRAGIC' LEVITY. .Of course, one despairs of any hopeful contribution from the Prime Minister. I remember he went to q banquet at Levin some time ago, .and under the influence of what one of my chairmen, during the election, declared to be probably the crayfish, mado this incom'pi*ehensible statement,, that peace should have been dictated in Berlin. Fancy that —the Prime Minister of this country goes to Levin and declares that-the war did not end ;soon enough. -Peace should havd been dictated Berlin. When I saw that statement In the press I felt an indignant as I had ever felt in all my life. : I thought of the hundreds,, aye.

Speecli in Parliament fey JL A. LEIL, 'M.P.

the thousands, of fine, noble, manly fellows that I knew who bit the dust In France, and I thought of the hundreds of thousands, and maybe mih lions, of deaths that would have been involved in a march on Berlin, and 1 thought, we have in power in this country a Prime Minister for whom the most you can say is that he appears to be mentally ands emotionally bankrupt. Peace should have been dictated in Berlin, says the Prime . Minister; and when a man makes that statement we send him to a Conference and ask him to bring about a peaceful solution of the world's troubles. We call that statesmanship, patriotism, and intelligent administration. Well, if that is statesmanship, patriotism, and intelligent, administration, then the sooner we have a clean sweep of it, and the sooner we have a little of what oui opponents would call revolutionary administration —for that is they way they refer to the people on the Labour benches —then the better for the peace of the world and the people who.inhabit the world. THE INFAMOUS TURK WAR SCARE. We know that when ihe Near East situation arose no concern was shown - for the wishes of the people. We know that the people had no opportunity of deciding New Zealand's, attitude with respect to war with Turkey. We know that the people of New Zealand were opposed to war with Turkey. We know that the people of Britain were opposed to war with Turkey. We know that the people of Canada were opposed .to war with Turkey. We know that the people of South Africa were opposed to war with Turkey. And yet we know that this Government blindly pledged the people of this country to participation in what would have been little other than criminal enterprise—and .1 honestly believe that they now recognise that fact. I believe that one of the -things the Reform party will be known by for many a long day, _ust ! as the Atkiixson. Govornmeni is remembered by its soup-kitchens, will be the blind and criminal way in which they nearly threw the manhood of New Zealand into war during the Near East trouble apparently to create a satisfactory position for the elections that were then pending. The Liberal party helped them, and I wish to say that the Liberal party were just as responsible for plunging New Zealand into that criminal enterprise as was the Reform party. When the Near East crisis was on, the position was different, as far as Canada was 'concerned. That crisis brought about a statement from Mr. Mackenzie King, the Prime Minister, that as far as he was concerned Canada would refuse to fight in any war unless the people were first of all consulted. He said that Parliament would not send troops overseas unless the people of Canada wore consulted; and only the other day we'know the he initiated a treaty with the United States of America and declared his intention of acting in the interests of the Canadian people all the time, regardless of what may be the attitude of Downing Street. I believe that is the attitude that our Prime Minister should take up, and that he should lay down at the Conference that on no consideration will New Zealand pledge itself to participate in any war outside of New Zealand until the people have been asked whether they are in favour of the \«ar or not. WASTE OF WAR. Now, this question of the Ruhr is bound to be discussed; we know that the power of the Prime Minister will be slight, we know that after all the . Prime Minister has not unlimited 'poVen?, that he cannot impose a settlement of the reparations problem upon the Conference generally, or. that, eyen if the Conference agrees, that Conference cannot impose a settlement of the reparations -problem upon the French people; but we know this, that if a unanimous decision opposing the advance into the-.Ruhr was made by such an overseas Conference — from a Conference consisting of Pre-miers-who represent countries which lost men, treasure,' and blood in the war, it should certainly have some influence on French policy. Surely we have had enough of this idea of revenge. Surely the time . has arrived when this issue should be settled Intelligently. Surely we have arrived at a time when we can very well dispense with a policy leading to war —war, as Kennedy puts it, that is:— Waste of muscle, waste of brain; . ' Waßtft ot natience, waste of nain:

Waste of work and waste of wealth ;• Waste of beauty, waste of health; Waste of blood and waste of tears; Waste of youth's most precious years; Waste of ways the saints have trod; Waste of glory, waste of God—War* That is just what the present Ruhr, situation is likely to lead up to —all of those different sorts of waste, and was Is all that and many other things. French Imperialism, French militarism, French conscription, French force, are just as big a danger to the peace of the world as Germany militarism, German force were, CRIME OF SECRET DIPLOMACY. Dealing with secret diplomacy, Mr. Lee said: — Did secret diplomacy do anything to avoid the last war? Was not diplomacy a contributing factor? Would the people of Britain, of France, of the Dominions, of Germany, have participated in the last war had they known of the secret treaties and secret diplomacy'? The trouble aboutsecret diplomacy is that you do not. know what to arm against, or.to prepare against. Had the people of England known of the extent to which military commitments had been made, they would have taken steps to avoid war; they would have denounced commitments, and I believe had tho commitments been made public tha people would have exerted their influence in the different countries and to a largs extent would have prevent--ed war. Of course we were told that v/e went to war for the sake of Belgium. The secret diplomats told us that, but we know now that we did nothing of the kind. Y*/e know that the war was prepared for long before. -Lloyd George and Grey and others have told us that long before the war broke out we had military officers in France preparing plans of campaign, and we know that whether Belgium had been invaded or not/ Britain would have been pushed into the war by reason" of her secret alliances. Everybody knows that, now-r»-j<*y«-, v»%.v/i.«i _..> Ijuct»o,1juc t »o, »vine Kerorniers, who do not seem to know anything. 2*o SECRECY ABOUT DYING. Yet people talk of secrecy as if it meant sanity. If people cannot discuss their affairs in the open there must bo something wrong with these affairs. There is -no secrecy about dying upon the field of battle, no se~ crecy about the explosion of shells. Men died for open covenants to be openly arrived at. They died in that hope. They were good enough to die and yet they are not good enough to know the reason for New, Zealand's policy; good enough to fight, but not good enough to know why they have to fight. A few supermen are to meet secretly and pledge the country to grants in aid of fortifications in Singapore, and are to zneet secretly and pledge a huge area of Turkey to Greece,. which pledge eventually involves, a nearly involves, New Zealand in a war. A few people meet secretly and make their military commitments, and though the people ani good enough to die, they are not good enough to have a voice in the discussion of these affairs. There is a danger of the State becoming a Prussian State, like the State which we fought. That seems to be what happened in New Zealand while we were engaged in the war. Why, Sir, if one listens, one can almost hear millions of feet marching to sacrifice themselves for secret diplomacy, and people come here and still talk in favour of secret diplomacy. ' I had an opponent in the election whose eyes were blotted out; everything that a' man can see shut out for ever by a Curtain of darkness. Men's limbs were mangled, wives and children were made widows and orphans, and . yet people still come down here and tell us that after nine or ten years of suffering we are still to go on with the old system.' . . . Diplomats must not be given free hands. There is no good in trying to prevent Avars after they have created the crisis and set (he house on fire. The time to prevent war is now. If we have open covenants, openly arrived at; if we are enabled to discuss fully every pledge the Prime Minister gives to the associated Prime Ministers, I feel sure that New Zealand will never again be on the edge of a Near East crisis. _____ j _ —