DOMINION IN LONDON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19455, 11 October 1926, Page 12

DOMINION IN LONDON.

HIGH COMMISSIONER'S WORK RESPONSIBILITIES OF OFFICE. DIPLOMATIC FACULTIES NEEDED. v • r r _ i [BY TELEGRAPH. —SPECIAL REPORTER.] TE AROHA, Saturday. " I think the people of New Zealand have a right to ask the Government to mako more public the communications which are received from the High Commissioner's office in London," said Sir James Allen at a dinner tendered to visiting members of the Cabinet this evening. Sir James was acceding to a request that he should give some indication of the work of the High Commissioner. He considered it his duty, he said, to put aside all questions of party politics when he took over the office, his conception being that he was there as the representative of the whole of the people of New Zealand, and not merely of the Government in power. Reference was made to the expansiorr of the business of the office,' necessitating the purchase of larger premises. Speaking of the various committees of which the High Commissioner was a member, Sir James drew attention to the work of the Dominion's delegates to the League of Nations, and to the work of the Imperial Shipping Committee. The High Commissioner, he said, ought to be a member of the Economic Committee, while there was also a great responsibility resting on him as a member of the Pacific Cable Board. This board had had some very important work before it during the past few years, including the duplication of the cable across the Pacific Ocean, from Bamfield, British Columbia, to Suva, an undertaking which would be completed within the next f?w months.

" I cannot close," Sir James said, " without saying that what has developed during the past six years points to the fact that the duties of the High Commissioner are two-fold. He has to control his office, and, if he does not do that properly, he is not worth his salt, and-is no good to New Zealand. He has also to use his diplomatic faculties on the committees mentioned. . He cannot commit his Government, hut what he can do, and what it is his duty to do, is fo sit with these various organisations and gather from the surrounding influences what is worth while and forward it to his Prime Minister." Sir James added that he had often been invited to sit at the table with the Prime Minister of Britain, and with the Secretary of Statn'for Foreign Affairs. From these intimate talks he had been able to pass on to New Zealand much that he thought would be of use. One such conversation with the Secretary for the Dominions had saved the Dominion from precipitate action. The action contemplated by the Government was quite right and quite legitimate, but the conversation had revealed that action at the moment would not have brought' advantages that a short postponement would bring.