LORD NORTHCLIFFE IN FRANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18545, 4 May 1922, Page 8

LORD NORTHCLIFFE IN FRANCE

PRAISE FOR NEAT' ZEALAND \ . !Fbok Opb Own Cohbmbondmt.) “XT' r»' , LONDON, March 9., n\..^ ew T Zeaknd 15 ,hp most beautiful country I saw, not c\itpting Japan. I beheve the opportunities m Zealand for the right kind of person .are the best in l h iV V ° rk l t ,°‘ da y> ,l ‘t p-Jorably for those WJ th capital and patience.” r « S xt ' 3 ,°P.® °t the remarks made hr rtkcliffe, _i n France, to Mr Lovat Fraser, to whom he granted a special interview for the Sunday Pictorial. It is a very gratifying impression, ye . it is suit London und£ stood that, the traveller saw only a small corner 'if the North Island, and did Tot get anywhere near the South He founJ U hrough Australasia the clerical class td be not so well paid as in Britain. News, paper producers of all kinds-editoriaL managerial, mechanical, distributive—are 1 infinitely better paid here than in Austraasia; and this remark applies to many other industries. He is described .as be‘“"“r 1 .*• ■ a » •»*«»“> °t A RAPIDLY. CHANGING EAST impre ? ions °L Japan, Lord Northcliffe answered: “I received no dis. courtesy in Japan, but the new I hava formed is that the legend of Japan is“,! tfhTwh d ;-^ ,e u Japa, u ese are inclined to uhave beaten a white race but m they have bee® gentT; foiled. They .very considerably overrate their own powers. They ■ are essentially and do not originate, and therefore their faculties are not in some respects upon the highest plane. It takes a good 3 ! or f/i ,pa / ese r to perform tasks which would be done by a limited number of Europeans. I don’t think oiir people reause that Japan is an absolute autocracy with, a toy Parliament and strangled news!' papers. Japan has been too much of a bogey to Europe and to America. The decisions of the Washington Conference which the Japanese intensely disliked, will prevent them from encroaching upon- - China but constant vigilance will be needed. Japanese aggression in China was largely a consequence of the unfortunate Anglo-Japanese Alliance, now happily terminated. ■ f ‘‘l. 3 - nn °*. sufficiently impress upon the British public, ne continued, “the Vapidity with which the East is-changing. Opinions may differ about whether -these . changes, are superncial ■or fundamental, but, in mv opimon they are deep, and go to the very roots of Asiatic traditions. Let no one talk any more about ‘the changless East,’ or say that East and West will never meet Just as we lived through the equivalent of a century of history in the last seven years, so Asia seems to me to have awakened and to be cramming centuries into decades. I do not presume to cast the horoscope of the East, but we Britons must look ourward and study the great world-movements at work in these distant lands and'' seas. The time nuist come when we shall find; the East, from whence we first learned the trading instinct, knocking at the doors of the .world’s markets. Some Eastern races are doing so already. I hava no fear for the future of the white races. 1 have OOID6 back convinced that we can. hold our own, but we shall never do it if we lose the secrets of thrift and of industry and waste our substance in mad and futile, quarrels between the nations of the West. . AN UNCERTAIN GOVERNMENT. “The present condition of India,” observed Lord Northcliffe, “is, in my opinion, a reflex of the present Government at Home, and the same is true of Egypt and .Palestine. Where you have both governors and governed entirely uncertain about tho • attitude of Downing street, you are bound' "to have , a partial paralysis of the funotiona of government. ‘Arrest Gandhi!’ a great 'many people cry out here. _ ‘Yes,’ replies the Anglo-Indian, ‘and Downing street will let him out to-morrow.’ Wherever I went in the East I found uncertainty as to what the Government at Home would do.” ‘ THE BENEFIT OF TRAVEL. Realising that the traveller,, during his journeys by sea, has had time for prolonged thought upon tho great new problems of the Empire and of the East, Mr Fraser comments: “One catches glimpses of a larger vision and of a calm reflective outlook .upon far horizons which _to tho Governments and the people of this country are dim unrealities. No statesman in Britain to-day has 'come into recent close personal contact* as Lord Northcliffe has done, with the tremendous issues now arising for settlement in distant lands, issues which may affect wery man, woman, and ichild in these islands. Our statesmen know what they are told. Lord Northcliffe . speaks of what he,has seen. ,