WHO'S TO GO HOME THIS YEAR?

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 914, 18 January 1918, Page 8

WHO'S TO GO HOME THIS YEAR?

Some Possibilities.

MR. Massey's decision to hand over r the Lands Portfolio to Mr. I Guthrie, when Mr. Herdman retires I and the member for Oroua becomes a | full-blown Minister is, we believe, re--8 garded in certain quarters as an indi--8 cation that later on the Prime MinisS ter may take over Sir James Allen's H duties as Minister of' Defence, the latB ter replacing, Sir Thomas Mackenzie as m High Commissioner. The political 8 quidnuncs who hold this view argue §§ that Sir James Allen will accompany If Sir Joseph Ward to London before B many months are over, and represent, B with Sir Joseph, the Dominion at the 8 coming Imperial Conference. Against 1 this theory, however, there is the B strong probability that the Imperial || Government would naturally prefer H New Zealand to be represented at the &| Conference by her Chief Citizen, esjj pecially in view of the fact _ that the jl future of the German colonies in the I® Pacific will be one of the questions to ft be decided at the Conference. For our own part, we believe that the Dominion If! would be specially well represented by Sir James Allen at any conference at ||g which New "Zealand's interests in the S Pacific might bei discussed. Sir James |jf has for years past made • a special Pf| study of Imperial problems, and alfp though Mr. Massev is well known to gibe specially insistent upon the non-re-gll turn of Samoa, to the Germans, we belli li©ve that Sir James Allen is in some Sways better fitted to put the case for jll the Dominion before the Imperial Conl&j ferenee. |pl|i * Sfl On the. other hand we hold the pjf spinion that the substitution of Mr. Jfcifassey for Sir James Allen as Minister ppsf Defence would be a wise and most K idvantageous step. Sir James apw oears to be quite incapable of believpjgrng that his officers —"Leave my offi-

cers alone!" —can be otherwise than infallible. Mr. Massey is, we believe, a much better judge of men than is his colleague. Also, he is more in touch with public opinion and more likely to regard the. grievances of the soldiers from a sympathetic and non-red-tape point of view than is the x s resent Minister of Defence. For these reasons and many others which might be instanced, we should like to see Sir James Allen go to London and represent the Dominion at the Conference. If he does, then it is quite on the cards that "Oor Tam" will find himself an official back number before ihe year is out.