MR JUSTICE SMITH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23691, 24 December 1938, Page 12

MR JUSTICE SMITH

RETURN FROM ABROAD IMPRESSIONS OF TOUR (Sfecial to Daily Times) AUCKLAND, Dec. 23. "To my mind the most potent element in the whole situation was the dread of the havoc that could be wrought from the air on London when it was insufficiently protected," said Mr Justice Smith on his arrival by the Monterey, in a review of the September crisis days in London. His Honor, with Mrs Smith, returned by the Monterey from a world tour. Giving impressions of his trip his Honor said he was struck by the efficiency of the Administration in the Dutch East Indies. The poverty of the lower classes in India was depressing. His own feeling was one of relief that the Indian Provincial Legislatures had undertaken the task of governing their own people and of endeavouring to improve their lot, and incidentally of realising how difficult the task was. He thought the experiment would succeed. His impressions of Italy were of the efficiency of passport inspections, the apparent lack of enthusiasm for marching troops, and of the courage of the Pope. There was intense interest in the United States in the international situation. Kansas was as well instructed as New York, and it could no longer be said the Middle West was not interested in international affairs. In England his Honor attended the Lord Chancellor's breakfast in the Royal gallery of the House of Lords at the opening of the legal year, and one morning he sat on the bench with the Court of Criminal Appeal. At Washington he had an interview with the Secretary of State, Mr Cordell Hull.