The Otago Witness WITH WHICH IS INCORRORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCLRY (TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 1921.) THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3495, 1 March 1921, Page 35

The Otago Witness WITH WHICH IS INCORRORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCLRY (TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 1921.) THE WEEK.

“Nunqnam aHud natura, allud sauientia dixit. *■ •—J CTVJEIf A.L. nature and good sen3o must ©/er join."— The firm and determined attitude taken up by the Shipowners’ The Shipowners’ Federation in Australia in Victory. simply putting all (vessels out of commission until such time as the seamen and stewards were willing to resume work under conditions giving some assurance of the non-disloca-tion of the shipping industry, has been abundantly justified. After nearly two and a-half months’ idleness, involving an estimated loss of something like £1,200,000 in wages, a settlement of the strike is announced, under an agreement to be drawn up in conference and which wiil remain in force until the end of the year. The actual loss to Australia and the Australian people which the shipping dead-lock has meant must run into very laqge figures, since unemployment has been rife and distress very real. The moral of the whole matter is writ so very large that it is plain to every commonsense mind. The strike is a two-edged tool which in almost every instance turns round and rends the party or factor or section which decides to put it into operation. In these days when machinery is so plentifully provided for the settlement of disputes regarding wages and conditions of work, and when employers, as a class, are eager to make every possible concession in order that the wheels of industry may go round smoothly and without friction, the strike stands out more and more - as an anachronism. So soon as it begins to dawn upon the minds of the extreme and revolutionary members of the Labour party that nothing is to be gained and everything is to be lost by' striking, so soon may a better and more hopeful condition of things be anticipated. It may reasonably be hoped that the settle- 1 ment of the dispute in Australia will not be without its effect in the dominion and that the conference between the representatives of the shipowners and of the Waterside Workers’ Federation may have a satisfactory issue. The shipowners have asked from the watersiders an assurance that work on the waterfront will be carried on uninterruptedly and in accordance with the full terms of the agreement, and it is to be hoped that the reply will be such as to end the existing dead-lock. At the same time, it will be well if the employing class, as well as the workers, seek to learn a lesson from the prevalence and pertinacity of these disputes. At bottom this strife and contention has its origin in the belief, firmly held by labour extremists, that nothing short of the overthrow of tbe present economic system w’ill give them that equality of opportunity for which they ever contend. It is for those, therefore, who believe that in private ownership of capital and in the private management of business, is to ne found the best and most adequate method of promoting the general welfare, t-o show more concern for the comfort and prosperity of the employed class, and to strive to anticipate their needs and be beforehand in redressing their grievances. For while the stimulus of the present system is the personal gains to be reaped from success, it should never be forgotten that success in any enterprise is proportioned to the intellectual interest displayed by every worker in the concern, aiid that hitherto the gains have not been equally distributed according to merit. The ambush at Macroom and the fiercest pitched battle f.ouglit Ireland and between the Crown forces Egypt. and a section of the Republican army would seem to hold out faint hopes of a speedy settlement of the Irish turmoil. Apart altogether from the hideous slaughter and the recurring outrages which are the lamentable features of the conflict, there is the statement made bv Sir Hamar Greenwood that the monthly expenditure upon the police force - in Ireland is £621,000. The debates on the Irish Question, both in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, show that the problem of Ireland is so intermixed by political issues as to obscure the truth and render clear conclusions exceedingly difficult. It is reported, for instance, that there are serious differences of opinion over the Irish question, and that several of the Ministers object to the policy of reprisals, the objections being of such a nature that unless a new -policy is initiated, a serious snlit in the Cabinet is inevitable. On the other hand Mr Asquith’s championship of the Irish cause and his denunciation of the reprisals as “the most discreditable chapter in the whole history of the British administration” is to some extent coloured by his political prejudices. More weight will attach to Sir Robert Cecil’s appeal to the Government to abandon tire whole policy of reprisals, an appeal which had little effect upon the House of Commons, which by 278 to 88 rejected the amendment t-o the Address-in-roply charging the Government with failing to repress crime in Ireland and with involving the. forces of the Crown in competition in crime with the Sinn Feiners. The voting goes to show that the British Parliament, as at present constituted, endorsed Mr Bonar Taw’s declaration “We not restore order to Ireland in a hurry, but we shall do it.’’ At the same time, there is a growing feeling of uneasiness that the reprisal policy as carried out by the “Black and Tans” is scarcely in accordance with British tradition : the Archbishop of Canterbury probably voiced this feeling when he said: “The people of Great Britain

are bewildered with regard to Irish affairs to-day. It is not a matter of policy but of ethics—of the ordinary abiding principles of right and wrong in public affairs. It is impossible to justify punishing wrong Toy committing wrong'yourself. By calling in the aid of devils you cannot cast out devils.” It is instructive to compare the position in Ireland today with that which is rapidly developing in Egypt, and the outcome of the report of the Milner mission. The policy enunciated in that report is exactly the opposite of that followed in Ireland, Lord Milner apparently having come to the conclusion that the best way to deal with the growing feeling after Nationalism in Egypt was to recommend measures of relief far in advance of anything contended for by the most advanced nationalist. It is a pobey which has succeeded admirably in South Africa, as witness General Smuts’ recent victory at the elections; it is a policy already on hand in India; but it is a policy said to be- strenuously opposed by Mr Winston Churchill and a solid phalanx of Tories. Whether or no, at this eleventh hour, it would succeed in Ireland, is at least open to debate, but it is becoming, more and more evident that upon the right settlement of the affairs of Ireland the future of the British Empire must largely depend. There is every indication that the coming Imperial Conference, whicix Mr Massey’s Mr Massey has been sumMission. moned to attend, will be called upon to debate and decide the policy of the British Empire in regard to its dominions and dependencies to an extent and in a degree never before contemplated. The whole question of self-government and self-determination within the Empire must come up for discussion, and this in an entirely new aspect and from a fresh point of view. If the British Empire can devise and determine a plan whereby a congerie of separate nations—for this is the present position of the Empire—will mutually agree to dwell together in peace and harmony, at the same time exercising the right to determine their own affairs, not selfishly, but in the interests of the whole, a most important step will have been taken towards the preservation of the peace of the world. For the establishment on a sound foundation of a British Commonwealth of Nations should be the prelude to the eventual development of a still larger Commonwealth, an International Commonwealth of which the League of Nations is but the germ and the idea. Such a consideration lends importance to Mr Massey’s mission, and it may be hoped that time will be found, during the snort session of Parliament which precedes the departure of the Prime Minister from our shores, for a clear exposition of the Imperial policy whiiph New Zealand desires to enunciate. Mr Massey should go to London accredited with something more than his personal predilections, or even the collective wisdom of the Cabinet. As head of the New Zealand Government, Mr Massey should go to London armed with a resolution of the Parliament of New Zealand, expressing in no ambiguous terms the sentiment of the people of New Zealand in favour of the fullest possible self-determination of the component parts of the Empire, consonant with the w’pl “ J the Empire vs a whole, and of the i at large. In drafting such a resolution for presentation to Parliament Mr Massey will now have the advantage of the advice of Mr W. Do-wnie Stewart, the latest Cabinet appointee. Mx Stewart has made a close study of the Common wealth of Nations idea as developed by Mr Lionel Curtis and the Round Table school, and more recently discoursed by Mr 11. Duncan Hall in “The British Commonwealth of Nations.” A sentence from the conclusion of Mr Hall’s book is apropos of the present situation: “There is that now in the hearts of the peoples of the United States, of the Dominions, and of the United Kingdom, upon which, given wise statesmanship, it will be possible to build the strongest of all guarantees of the success of the League of Nations and of the beginning of a reign of peace upon the earth—namely, an intimate group of English-speaking peoples actino- as the pioneers of the human race in its travel towards ‘the parliament of man and the federation of the world.’ ” As the contract with the Imperial Government in regard to butter runs out on March 31, Dr C. J. R-eakes has asked the Dominion Butter Committee to meet him in Wellington on March it). to discuss proposals for the immediate future. A Marten message states that Mr T. Buxton, managing agent and organiser for the South Island potato-grower 3, was in Marton on Friday returning from the north, where he has arranged with a strong organisation for selling and distributing the South Island potato crop. Owing to limited supplies in the north, Auckland will probably have to draw supplies from th© south by the middle of March. Mr Buxton will visit Hawke’s Bay and Taranaki this week, when lie will appoint representatives of the association in each centre. The boat-building and iship-repairing business (including vessels) of Messrs Miller Bros. (Ltd.), of Port Chalmers, has been sold to Mr Thomas Ayson, of Wyndham. The firm’s vessels include the hulk Gertie and the converted schooner Progress. It is understood that Mr R. C. Miller, late principal of Miller Bros. (Ltd.), intends to start a similar business under the name of Miller Bros. Mr John Wilkinson, local secretary of the China Inland Mission, has placed at our disposal correspondence from China in which the warning is issued that persons who may be disposed to subscribe in relief of the distress caused by the serious famine in China should on no account entrust monev to funds administered by Chines© authorities, but should send direct to such funds as are administered by foreigners. The Peking and Tientsin Times has advocated this course, and has directed attention to instance in which a portion of funds ad-

ministered by officials seems to find its way into the pockets of the officials themselves. The gTave extent of tho famine is illustrated in the statement that over 50 millions are effected by it, and thi& millions will certainly die in consequence of it before the winter is over. A thousand pounds a year sounds a large salary for a woman, but it is interesting to learn that some women in England earn a good deal more. The Hon. Maude Agnes Lawrence, the newly-appointed woman chief of the British Treasury, gets £IOOO, but other women in the Civil Servioe are getting higher salaries. According to an exchange, Dr Janet Campbell’s appointment in the medical service of the Ministry of Health is worth £I2OO to £ISOO. Four other women -medical officers —Drs Cameron, Cunningham, Lambert, and Turnbull—get from £7OO to £I2OO. Miss Ritson, on the Board of Health for Scotland, and Mrs Bickie, for Ireland, also hold £IOOO posts.