LORD NORTHCLIFFE IN FRANCE

Otago Witness, Issue 3556, 9 May 1922, Page 24

LORD NORTHCLIFFE IN FRANCE

PRAISE FOR NEW ZEALAND. IFiiou Oub Own Corbespondent.) (<AT „ , LONDON, March 9. INew Zealand is the most beautiful country I saw, not . .opting Japan. I believe the opportunities m New Zealand tor the right kind of person are the best in the world to-day, nit p-Oerably for those” with capital and patience.” t ,l- tile remarks made by Lord Northchffe, j„ France, to Air Lovat Eraser to whom he granted a special interview for the Sunday .Pictorial. It is a very gratifying impressm, ye; it is surprising', too inasmuch as London understood that the traveller saw only a small corner of the North Island, and did not get anywhere near the South He fount all through Australasia the clerical class to be not so well paid as m Britain. Newspaper producers of all kinds-editorial managerial, mechanical, distributive—are infinitely better paid here than in Austraasia; and this remark applies to many other industries. He is described as benig- oeoply troubled at the emptiness of Australia. A RAPIDLY CHANGING EAST. N7 A jA e ra' his impressions of Japan, Lord rsortheliffe answered: “I received no discourtesy m Japan, but the view 1 have formed is that the legend of Japan is exaggerated Ihe Japanese are inclined to flunk that they have beaten a white race coj ln rn oa the y have been gently toiled. They very considerably overrate their own powers. They are essentially mutative, and do not originate, and thereioie tneir faculties are not in some respects upon the highest plane. It takes a good many more Japanese to perform tasks which would be done by a limited number of Europeans. I don’t think our people leahse that Japan is an absolute autocracy with a toy Parliament and strangled newspapers. Japan has been too much of a bogey to Europe and to America. The decisions of the AYctshington Conference which the Japanese intensely disliked will ’ prevent them from encroaching 'upon China, but constant vigilance will be needed. Japanese aggression in China w*s largely a consequence of the unfortunate Anglo-Japanese Alliance, now happily terminated. T cannot sufficiently impress upon the British public, ’ he continued, “the rapidity with which the East is changing. Opinions may differ about whether these changes are superficial or fundamental, but, in my opinion (hey are deep, and go to the very roots of Asiatic traditions. Let no oner talk any more about ’the ohangless 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 lx. cramming centuries into decades. I do not presume to cast the horoscope of the East, but we Britons must look onrward and study the great world-movements at work in these distant lands and seas. The time must 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 ara doing so already. I have no fear for the future of the white races. I have come 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 Northcliffo, “is, in my opinion, a reflex of the present Government at Home, and the same is true of Egypt and Palestifte. Where you have both governors and governed entirely uncertain about the attitude of Downing street, you are bound to have a partial paralysis of the functions 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 the great new pro- | blems of the Empire and of the East, Mr Eraser comments: “One catches glimpses of a larger vision and of a calm reflective outlook it non far horizons which to the Governments and the people of litis country are dim unrealities. .No statesman in Britain to-day has come into recent close personal contact, as Lord Nort-hcliffe has done, with the tremendous issues now arising for settlement in distant lands, issues which may affect every man, woman, and child in these islands. Our statesmen know what they are told. Lord Xorthcliffe speaks of what he has seen.