A PARTY DELEGATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25802, 24 March 1945, Page 6

A PARTY DELEGATION

The Government has missed the opportunity of selecting a delegation for the approaching Empire Conference in London that would be truly representative of the Dominion as a whole. The conference is to be preliminary to the international conference to be held next month for the purpose of establishing an organisation for the maintenance of world-wide peace and security, and is particularly designed to secure that the views of the different nations within the British Commonwealth may, as far as possible, be harmonised with a view to a united front being presented at San Francisco. The delegation at the London meeting is, it is now announced, to consist of the Prime Minister, the High Commissioner in the United Kingdom, and the resident Minister, so-called, in the United States. In other words, it is to consist of a politician and two public officials. The type of delegation with which the Dominion is to be content at London makes us despair of the choice of a delegation for San Francisco that will be more broadly representative of the people as a whole. The very great importance of the subject for discussion lifts it far above the level of any matter that might suitably be reserved for party consideration. Of this the Commonwealth Government has shown its recognition. Its delegation for San Francisco includes representatives of the political parties that are opposed to the Government and of returned servicemen’s and employers’ organisations, and it also includes a representative of women’s interests. The delegation from the United Kingdom includes members of each of the three political parties which are now organising their forces for the general election that is impending. Both these delegations have been so selected that they may be said to represent national interests. It would be highly desirable that the New Zealand delegation for the San Francisco conference should be similarly representative of the public as a whole. The presence of Mr Holland, leader of the National Party, in Great Britain at the present time, afforded the Gwernment the opportunity of appreciably widening the representation at the preliminary conference. It is not to its credit that it has taken a narrow and partisan view of its responsibility.