The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 1918. THE RIGHT HON. W. M. HUGHES

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10001, 19 June 1918, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 1918. THE RIGHT HON. W. M. HUGHES

Air Hushes, as Prime Minister of the Australian Commonwealth, has reason to be very satisfied, with his reception in London. Personal reasons he has, of course. But we are not alluding to any personal reasons; the interest of the Commonwealth is quite sufficient reason for the satisfaction of Mr Hughes, and, indeed, of any other Australian. The warm reception accorded to Mr Hughes as Commonwealth Prime Muster proves that the whole story of the conscription Referendum has failed to shake the con>fidence in Australia which was established by Mr Hughes during his former visits to England. When he left London' no one doubted that the result of the appeal to Australia was going to be an overwhelming vote for compulsory service. Probably the most disappointed man in the world when the vote went the other way was Mr Hughes himself. Possibly he was also the man who had least reason to be disappointed, because a good deal of the adverse result of the polling was due to his many faulty ways of handling the situation. Of the coni sequence of these mistakes, the German propaganda took immense advantage; so did certain misguided people who make allowance for nothing but their own prejudices; so did certain politicians who mistake the narrowest sectional bias for patriotism; so did the strange people for whom the only saints in the calendar are the Bolsheviks, who. not content with denying their country, betrayed it to the worst despotism the world ha s ever seen. All these causes of disturbance Mr Hughes dismissed! lightly in replying to the warm welcomes extended to him. The point, however, is that the matter was so well understood in London, Mr Hughes -being received as the representative of a staunch, loyal Australia. England prefers the noble standard of the battlefield for its appreciation of Australia to the miserable compound of various meannesses and misjudgments, of which two Referendum verdicts were the outcome. When Mr Hughes, in his speech of thanks, declared that the recent reverses had sent up recruiting in Australia, it was felt that he was speaking for a people really unsmirched by disloyalty to the great cause. This is good for a special reason which concerns the oversea Dominions quite as much as Australia. It concerns New Zealand and South Africa, Dominions which have lately been freed, with thoir own co-operation, from the menace of Germanic neighbourhood and are for obvious reasons determined to retain that immunity for all time. In this consensus of determination the voice of the Australian Commonwealth is a strong voice, by reason of the fine character of its people and! the large extent of its territory, which that people is anxious to keep for itself and its best institutions and traditions. Had the Commonwealth been branded disloyal to the Empire and the great cause in consequence of the voting of the two Referendum polls, it would have been a calamity to civilisation. That calamity has been averted, as the reception of Mr Hughes, who is still listened to with attention, as the representative of a united rising nation, proves. Like our own representatives, Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward, Mr Hughes took the first opportunity afforded him of placing in the forefront of war questions the retention under the British flag of the ex-Gorman colonies. Ho spoke, of course, as our representatives did, of the ex-colonies in the Pacific. But what he and they said of those colonies ,applies with even greater emphasis to the ex-German colonies of the African Continent. The voices of the African representatives will swell the demand for the ousting of tlio Gorman from all theso regions. The German, so far from being] thwarted, was strongly helped by Britain and France to acquire, them. Ho obtained a magnificent opportunity. Had he used it well he would eventually have been at the head of a vast colonial empire, one of the strong pillars, of peace in the world. Ho .misused that opportunity; ho lost theso territories in consequence; ho has earned the bar which the oversea Dominions of Britain insist on setting up against his retnrn. This demand, as tlio British pross is saying with acclamation, represents a reality, adding that realities are the things to be solely considered in setting tho. affairs of

the world after tho war on a permanent basis.

There aro many other realities which laJao have powerful voices behind them. Intro is the punishment of the wrongdoers who have degraded war to the lowest savagery systematized by scientific attainments. There is the question of Poland, which is entitled to justice .after nearly two centuries of oppression, and can bo made by justice into an impassable barrier against the spread of Prussianism to the Fast with its ugly menace to the freedom and peace of tho world. There is the great work of restoration in marty countries now under tho heel of scientific savagery. There is tho establishment of a League of Nations as a guarantee of the world's peace, so necessary for the reconstruction of society on lines of truth and justice Of only one of these was mention made in the receptmn of Mr Hughes, though all are realities of tremendous import. That one was the League of Nations, it is quite true that before this ca.n be made a reality of the right kind very much may have to be done bj» way of preliminary. Ifc may turn out after many consultations that the best possible nucleus of a League of Nations is the union of all the nations or the American continents, bound together by a common Monroe doctrine, inus it may come to pass that the bond which has already brought several of these Americas into the war and may bring all .before the end of iorce to keep all the nations of tli* world together to keep freedom alive in the world. It is a question not yci !? e i. or nal discussion. At any rate all the other realities which have been SanlT'' i C,UdinK tho realities demanded in the matter of the ex-Ger-, man colomes, are subjects of general Theirs am ° nK th / E,ltente £«°n! ■these nations are determined to win the war m order to hecure these great realities. It is the best hope for the retention of.the ex-German colonies