GREAT PUBLICITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22999, 30 September 1936, Page 3

GREAT PUBLICITY

"BIG BILL” JORDAN GLOWING PRESS RECEPTION NEW ZEALAND BENEFITS It is a pity that our Mr Bruce was never a policeman (states a special correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald, writing from London by air mail), for had be wielded a baton in the days of his youth he Would have been assured of tremendous publicity on taking up the post of High Commissioner in London. Consider the case of “ Big Bill ” Jordan, New Zealand’s High Commissioner, who arrived here, last week, heralded by much newspaper trumpeting and lauded to the skies as a sort of Dick Whitting,ton. Think of the advertisement he is giving to New Zealand. Conceive the golden opportunities open to him for proclaiming the Dominion’s charms and wealth. Photographed at the station, surrounded by knights, generals, and British Government representatives: photographed greeting his 84-year-old mother at her home in Avondale road, Harringay; photographed here, and interviewed there: really, we felt for a time that the Spanish war was, after all. an affair of minor importance compared with this New Zealand “ Big Bill ” (as more than one newspaper affectionately calls him). And all because “ Big Bill ” had been a constable for one short year, long, long ago; all because he had “ risen ” in the world in a manner which seems to have surprised the good people of this land. So that probably every man on the beat in London now cherishes the thought that he, too, may some day exchange his policeman’s baton for a High Commissioner’s top hat. As for big Mr Jordan, it cannot be said that he is modest when describing the manifold attractions of his adopted country. His glowing words have created quite a sensation, especially among Labour leaders and union secretaries, who are filled with an envious joy when they hear that New Zealand workers are paid £4 for a 40hour week, and that rural workers are not “ allowed ” to receive less than 42s a week, and are “ compelled ” to take an annual holiday on full pay. Thus we read such headings in the Daily Herald and the News Chronicle as “A Farming Paradise,” “ Where Workers Are Rich,” ‘‘A Happy Land.” and so on. It is all good propaganda, and Mr Jordan is to be congratulated upon it. But we know, and he knows, 100, that practically all this initial success derives from the fact that he once performed constabulary duties in a metropolis which is entirely unaccustomed to seeing its ex-policemen in high places.