GRAVE AND GAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21377, 29 December 1932, Page 5

GRAVE AND GAY

MR. W. M. HUGHES' TRAVELS AND IMPRESSIONS With health obviously improved by his seven months' vacation from th© cares of Canberra, Mr. W. M. Hughes, formerly Prime Minister of Australia, returned recently with his wife and daughter to the Commonwealth. Mr. Hughes toured extensively in the ' United Kingdom, discovered family associations in Wales, was received by the King and Queen and collected one or two "freedoms" and guild memberships to add to his collection. "When I was previously given the free- - dom of the city of York," said Mr. Hughes, "I asked the Lord Mayor what privileges it carried. He did not know so he sent his clerk to find out. After half an hour's search the clerk returned and said that as a freeman I had the right to graze one cow on the common. But I hadn't a cow with me,"

Turning to graver affairs, Mr. Hughes said he thought the present position of the war debts problem should, bring matters to a head. "In face of the British Note which America made no attempt to answer—although she sent..-a reply—and the attitude of France, Belgium and "the other Powers, the United States will. be compelled to. review her position," he said. "Unfortunately, it is always difficult to know' the real opinion in the United States. But whatever the immediate results, cancellation of war debts seems to be inevitable". It can hardly make much difference to America, for she can scarcely insist on Britain paying while the other nations default."

Mr. Hughes said the highest opinions about Australia were now being expressed in London, and 'prophecies of early emergence from the depression were being freely expressed. "The Ottawa Agreement," said Mr. Hughes, "need not be scrutinised too closely in detail. The general effect must be considered. It is a confession of faith; a declaration of unity of purpose,' of an intention to co-opcrate. Without committing myself to full agreement with the details, I regard the whole as a stride in the right direction." Mr. Hughes said he had never expected miracles from the League of Nations, but if there were no League to-day it would be necessary to establish one that justified its existence.