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Otago Daily Times, Issue 17504, 21 December 1918, Page 6

MR HUGHES AND HIS CRITICS. Mr Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia, has during the past few months, which he has been spending in the United Kingdom, been the subject of a good deal of acrid criticism in the commonwealth. He has a great many enemies in Australia, wlio have pursued him with relentless malevolence from the period of his ejection from tho Labour Party, and his absence, along with Sir Joseph Cook, since the Imperial "War Conference closed a few months ago, •has not led to any diminution in the violence or persistence of the attacks upon him. His assailants apparently derived a great deal of satisfaction lately from the publication in the Age of an article from its London correspondent, in which it was suggested that Mr Hughes and Sir Joseph Cook have not been precisely as David and Jonathan. It was stated by the correspondent that for three months they never met; that Mr Hughes ignored the letters of his colleague, preserving silence even when warned that something unpleasant would happen to him when he returned to Australia; that he did not consult Sir Joseph Cook on matters affecting relations between Britain and the commonwealth; that deputations were stagemanaged so as to enable Mr Hughes to make speeches ; and that Mr Hughes desired to be placed in charge of tho economic reconstruction of the Empire. A somewhat amusing discussion occurred in the Federal House of Representatives on November 28 upon the Acting Prime Minister (Mr Watt) reading a cable message giving a categorical denial to the statements published by the Age. The cablegram, which was signed "Hughes and Cook," designated the first three of. the statements we have quoted as " absolutely untrue," and the succeeding three as "quite untrue," and added an assurance as to the cordiality of the relations subsisting between the Ministers. It is apparent that Mr Hughes was touched "on the raw." Mr Watt said he was quite prepared to take the word of the two men who knew most about it, "expressed in the plainest and most unmistakable language which no man, if he desired to be convinced, could fail to appreciate." But not every member of the House desired to be convinced.« Mr Higgs, one of the former colleagues of Mr Hughes, described the cable message as "camouflage." He referred to Mr Hughes as a man of " ridiculous vanitywho could not endure another person being upon the stage at the same time as himself. He was, he said, like a famous prima donna in that respect. The whole episode only illustrates the genius of Mr Hughes for becoming involved in an atmosphere super-charged with acrimonies and personalities. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that vanity is one of his weaknesses, by reason of which Ijis recent sojourn in the Old Country has brought him disappointment, owing to the fact that he has not been able to present such an impressive figure as he did upon the occasion of his earlier visit. British politicians have not been displaying the old interest in the "detonating quality" of Mr Hughes's oratory. In. the circumstances, perhaps, overmuch has been asked of his amiability.