THE NAVAL CONFERENCE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11871, 8 June 1909, Page 5

THE NAVAL CONFERENCE.

NEW ZEALAND TO BE REPRESENTED BY ITS PREMIER.

LEGISLATORS IN CONFERENCE

AN EPOCH-MAKING ". GATHERING

(From our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. A buzz of speculation; a gentl6 hubbub of softly murmuring voices, then all was still, but applause broke out, for. the Prime Minister was on his feet> The; informal Parliament liad started upon its career of Imperial business, marking an occasion that ■ will stand unique m the annals of New Zealand history. Such is how the members of the House oi Jiepresentatives yesterday* afternoon opened the important conference to consider whether Sir Joseph Ward should accept the special invitation of the Imperial Government to attend the Naval Conference m London- to discuss the great question of the' Empire's defence, and to consider whether . Parliament should pass supply and adjourn until his home-coming. V WHAT THE PREMIER "SAID. - Members, explained the" Prime Minis: ter, had been invited to meet together so that the position might bo placed before them. He hoped that members of the Legislative Council, who occupied the seats m the northern' end of the gallery, after hearing the debate, would consider the matter from their own point of view. As convenor of the meeting he himself would preside. The reason for the gathering was because the law did not permit of 'Parliament being prorogued on a date antecedent to the date of prorogation.; A record of the proceedings, he urged, should be made by the Hansard staff. Realising that he could only act with the general consent of members, he felt he should come before members 'and make a general statement,' and be guided by them. ' „.■' Wte THEY MET. ' New Zealand was not* responsible for the convening of a conference m England. The matter was" one beyond the" control of the Parliament of New, Zealand, y If. the representative at the con terence was to be the Premier; and Parliament wag to adjourn, the necessary steps would be taken to get an'extension of supplies. If the House m its judgment decided that New Zealand should not be represented, then His Excellency the Governor would have to' be advised differently. Under the circumstances the Government had to meet members m this way. If the invitation was refused the Government would la j. itself open to a charge, of indifference". The conference was an epoch -makinc tee. ' * . DREADNOUGHT QIfFER, o The tim« had arrived wlieh Parliament should say "yea" or "nay, 11 whether- it would uphold the offer of a Dreaunought or two to the British Government, and he would ask Parliament to do so. He also had to ask them to say whether New Zealand should be represented at the conference, and he intimated that a despatch which was expected had not yet been received by His Excellency, as apparently the Home Government was awaiting the result of. this conference of members. •'.,'..-

Sir Joseph Ward then redd the memorandum sent by him to his col-' leagues m the -'Ministry bofoio tho offer of «, Dreadnought was made. He explained the tension of the situation .'al Horne # and suggested tho offer of one or, if necessary, two .'• Dreadnoughts at an outside cost of two millions. In that despatch he (Sir Joseph) estimated that tho necessary Joan would be raised at 2 per cent., which with 1 per cent, sinking fund, would amount to £80,000 a year, a not too heavy insurance on the commence of tho Dominion. That matter was submitted to a full meeting of Cabinet, and Cabinet agreed with the proposal, and on the same day he pent a telegram to His Excellency the Governor, requesting him to transmit the necessary information" to the Home Government, with the proviso that the support of Parliament must be obtained.

lAI fEIUAJL. DuIttPA TC tlJib

Sir .Joseph went on toreud tho cablegram from His Majesty s Govermneut, ! and His Majesty tlie Mng expressing appreciation of. the otter,- anu statin^ tmit full provision Had bepn made by the. 3om\) Uovei-nmerit tor -th'o.curveat imanal year. iNext tne Home Uovernmeni cabled that tlie Canadian Governmenl Had passed a resolution approving of the expenditure necessary lor the ioiniati»)ii oi a Canadian, mtval service to act m conjunction with the British mivy, ana that the Canadian people Would be Willing to make any sacrifice to conserve the. integrity of tne iimpire. The Home Government at the earne time expressed high appreciation of tho offer of the N ew Zealand Government . and. suggestea tiie holding of «v conference m uufy to consider questions of naval and military importance. It was suggested that the Dominion, eliould be represented by its Minister of Defence, but the question of representation' was entirely one tor the Government to decide, 'xhe cablegram also r stated that the conference would be fe'f. a purely consultative cliaracter. fclir Joseph 'Ward stated that telegrams had been sent to the Governor and. a message was received from Lord Crewe, thanking the' New Zealand Government for so readily accepting thoi invitation to be present at the conference. Another message from London 'expressed the-; hope that the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph. Wai*d # as Minister of Defence, would see his way to k?e, present.- .

MEMBERS' OPINION WANTED. It was necessary at present, addjftl the 'Premier, tbat'tiie Government sJiomd know the opinion of members, us without that knowledge the Government could not send a reply to the invitation. The Government could not agree to the suggestion that some one, not a Minister, of the Crowji, Bhould represent the Dominion at such an important conference, which the Secretary of State had intimated had^ among other things, tp consider tho offer of a, Dreadnought from New Zealand. The Home Government desired representatives, of the oversea dominions to be present, and tile responsibility was upon Parliament to say whether and by whom New Zealand should be' represented. The conference, was otf an unprecedented character, and the Ministry was unanimously of opinion that at such an important gathering , the head of the Government ought to represent the Dominion. (Applause.) ' :■

NO PARTY CONSIDERATIONS

fcjir Joseph Ward eaid he had declined to look at this matter from. a party point of view,, an, he thought that, m such a -question they ought to rise abov^ party. At tho thne that, offer Was made the Government knew nothing which had: not then .been made; public, .iaiid which they then thought justified them in 'making the offer that was now ; beiri£ discussed. Throughput the country the action of? the Government had been con-, firmed and L applauded, as being m the best inteieate oi the Empire. At heart they knew that if the -British fleet was not sufficient to maintain her superiority at sea New Zeahind would cease to be v portion> v of the British Empire,'' and foi ; that ' rciißon the people of New 25ealund aplauded the action of the Government from one end to the other. '.

Tho Prime Minister went on to quote the views of public men at Home, both Government and Opposition, ,and raid itwas a striking fact that both partieß ■ and. even extreme sections of ths community were agreed on tho necessity of. the maintenance of the supremacy, of the British navy. They were called upon to do tho same here.

'Mr Massey : And we are willing to do it.

TO STAKE THE COUNTRY'S INTERESTS.

The question remained to^ be consider-, ed, continued Sir Joseph Ward, whether the party who had made that offer should represent New Zealand at t!ie conference, and whether ■ Parliament should not be adjourned during his^ absence. The Federal Government had decided to offer a Dreadnought to Great Britain, the Cabinet assuming the responsibility of making the offer, alv though Parliament was m session. .-. ,Ac to the representative of New- Zealand' at the conference.) everyone agreed it phoukl be the TVhno Minister. : If <he Hoijist 4 . expected thd head', of v the- .'Government to, go to tho conference and leave -Par.-' liatuent sitting lie nhould refuse to go. (Applause.) Parliament should be post-

polled during his absence. When the exigencies of the Empire called, as they .lid now, for the presence m London oi tlio Premier of New Zealand, it was ..ot right, to demand that the business ■•if a first session should go on m the Premier's absence. Mr Massey : There was an occasion when Mr Seddon div go and a Parlia-j mentary session was held m his absence. Sir Josenhj continuing, said it was unfair for him to go away and leave .iew members to carry on under a Ministry that had several new members m it. Never since the days of Nelson had there been an epoch of such im portance m the history of the United tvingdom as the present one, and he felt it. was his duty to go. It would be necessary to have a representative whe could stake the interests of his country with something liko surety that what he undertook would be given effect to, and the Prime Minister was the only one who could do that. If Parliament agreed New Zealand should be represented, he ■proposed to ask the House to adjourn until September 30. In the- matter ol legislation there . were half a dozen very important questions which could be easily settled this side of Christmas, and the adjournment would only mean a month's delay m the submission of the Public Works Statement, They would have it before the middle of November Summarising the position, Sir Joseph emphasised the necessity for maintain ing the supremacy of the Navy, and resumed his seat amidst hearty applause The Hon. Mr Duncan moved a reso lution, "That this meeting of members of the House of Representatives recognises the very great importance to the Dominion of the Impending Naval Conference, and considers it necessary thai. New Zealand should be represented at such conference by the Prime Minister. This . meeting further considers • that as this is the first session of a new ParliaJhient, it is expedient thrft the Prime Minister should be m his. place to explain the policy of his Government to the Hous£ r and that therefore Parliament should, after making the necessary financial, arrangements to enable thebusi, ness of the coimtry to bo carried on by Parliament, be prorogued until September /30 next." The leader of the Opposition was received Applause. He did not, he said, think all the correspondence had been read. "WE ACCEPT FULL RESPONSIBILITY," Sir Joseph replied , that he had given all the correspondence except that which was marked confidential. That he declined to give. (Hear, hear.) Mr Massey went on to suggest that the debate should be adjourned to allow members ' to read the correspondence. * I " Mr T. E. Taylor 'asked whether the confidential . correspondence withheld referred to the Naval Conference or to the Dreadnought offer. The. Prime Minister : I absolutely de,- v cline to answer anything about what is; confidential. The offer made by the New. Zealand Government wa-s a spori.tanebus one, unsolicited by the Bvit/sh Government. We made it ' upon 6lir own responsibility for reasons which we believe to be justifiable. We. accept the full responsibility of it. .Mr Taylor, persisted. / Sir Joseph: I decline to say anything about the confidential despatches^ NO THEATRICAL DISPLAYS. Rtesuming at 7.30 Mr Massey. said that the Opposition did not m the slightest underrate the ' importance erf tlio Naval Conference, but lie saw no necessity for heroics, hysteria, or theatrical displays. What, lie a>ked, was the defence j policy of the Government. There was no country which had expended so much on defence arid had so little to show for it, no country which was so absolutely defenceless. He hoped that when the next war cloud arose they Would be able to do something better than the offer of a Dreadnought, which they had to borrow from tho Old Country to pay lor. (Hear, hear.) He took it for givmted New Zealand should be adequately represented at the conference, and'evidently Sir Joseph hud made up his mind to go Home, "and he was quite prepared to «gree to his doing so. The next question was whether Parliament should bo carried ;oiv m his absence, The occasions on which Parliament had been prorogued to allow tho Premier to go Home were unique, but m tho present instance the '''business of tho country should go on. The inference from the Premier's argument was that not a single member of "the Ministry was capable of carrying on, tho business of the [session during his 'absente. Ho could not trust his own party, which meant tliat he was placing the interests of party above the interests of Imperialism. He pointed out the expense and inconvenience of postponing Parliament, and declared tliat if the voting of money was held over until 'near the end of the year the '.districts "concerned \ would be very much worse off than v in* the 1 past. If there was a crisis to justify the spending of four millions, Parliament j should have been convened. This opinion was shared, ,by thousands of loyalists I who agreed, that Parliament should have decided , what -form the assistance to the Empire /should haver taken, v Mr Massey went on^ to deal with the matters pressing for , legislation, •. such as. the -condition of the ffuqlic service, providing ways and means to carry on public works, and the- unemployed question. The invitation of 'ttje Imperial Government, was to the Defence Minister, and if possible a defence expert from each colony. The Prime Minister was also Defence Minister. • and by all means let him go, but was this to mean "that every time a Defence Conference was held m London the business of the country was to be put oft. The Prime Minister had suggested a shilling fund to pay oft' -the cost of the ' battleship m 40 or oO .years, but as any battleship would be long before , then it was obvious they should pay an annual amount that would wipe out the capital cost m a . much shorter period, say 15 years. Mr Taylor: May i ask if tho despatch. The Prime Minister: I am hot here to .bo cross-examined. „ ''„.. Mr Taylor declared thufc there had been ah unnecessary display of feeling because the' question of tne Dreadnought otter was not being disclosed at present. The question he. had risen to ask Was whether the > British Government- .> had been advised that Lord Crewe's despatch had not arrived. Had ' Cabinet, he asked j any right to conceal from Parliament State documents simply by marking them confidential. vlt was strange. Parliament should assemble to determine who should^ represent New Zealand at the Confei*enco when it had riot ' been Consulted- m regard to the Dreadnought offer. \v Mr Taylor . went on to deal with the telegram sent to newspaper editors , by' the Prinie Minister at the time -of the Dreadnought offer, arid asked why it was not al«o sent to members ot Parliament. Producing a copy of the telegram he proposed ,to .read .it.-- . ,-■■- '-,"■-. ' •■ ■.' . . -. '■ . : 'the Prime Minister remarked that Mr Taylor, could dp so if. ho chose to take tho responsibility. •'■'.'.-'.' Mr Taylor, rejoined that : if tho Premier concealed these matters he (Mi 1 Taylor), was prepared 'to take the rc'sponsibility of milking them public. The telegram, he said, wife marked, "Editors of t all newspaper's Where a message relating to Dreadnoughts ' offer has been sent.' It commenced : "I havo sent yon an important telegram; 1 would like to impress upon you that the Kituation is grayer than has been . genejwlly dunposed or lias been published." Mr, Taylor > went on to say that the last words quoted had, m his j opinion, won for the Go ver nrn ; en t the almost yn - animouM -with which its messago was veceived.: ;Tho message was liysterical. Resuming the reading of tho 1 mcßsago, he stated that* the trime . Minister had said thut the dffer would "help Grent Britain m tho present cmis, chiolly by virtue of its moral effect and would illustrate ,to Germany what the dependencies, of Great Britain were prepared to do ih a. time of such imminent danger." The message concluded witit a statement that tlie question of pounds, shillings and pence should be disregarded, at such a time, and that Sir Joseph desired to have the telegram treated as strictly confidential, po that tlie alarming news might not bo nmdo public. He concluded it" lengthy ' fcpetvli' ■by. stuUng that \\<s would not o^pofe the Premier's going to London, but he would, oppose any adjournment of Par-; liamen!:. • ■ '

ONLY ONE DISSENTIENT. At this stage the Premier intimated l:e would put the Hon. Mr Duncan's motion m two parts. The motion that the Premier should attend the conferenco was submitted first, and carried with one dissentient. AN OPPOSITION AMENDxMENT. Tho Prime Minister then put tht second part of the resolution m favor of proroguing Parliament. There was a chorus 'of "ayes," and Mr Jas. Allen moved the following amendment : "That this meeting being of the opinion that important business which does not .admit of delay awaits the consideration of tht Legislature, deems it advisable to ask that Parliament should proceed without interruption." Mr Allen said that it was necessary that the Prime Ministei should attend the conference, but had it been merely n, cqnference on dotails it could have been attended to by the High Commissioner. The Prime Minister, he declared, should have ' trusted Parliament and the Opposition to have treated him fairly and honorably during his absence. Instead of doing that Sir Joseph Ward had. used the occasion for his own glorification and that of his party _ and the leader .of. the Opposition .had 'been loft m the shade. He asked the Prime Minister to withdraw his threat that if Parliament did not adjourn lie would not go Home, and added that, whoever wue, left m charge would receive the assistance of. the Opposition. . The Prime Minister considered he had been unfairly dealt with by the moving of the x amendment, which was a direct negative to the motion. He repeated that he Would, not go if a niotion was carried against the adjournment of tht House. If the Government before making the bffer had waited to consult. Parliament a great dear of the effect would have been lost, arid m acting, as it had done the Government had acted m a constitutional manner. Cabinet was constitutionally' responsible for its. acts, and considered that it- had no right ,io shelter itself behind the views of members communicated by telegraph. He had no desire to flourish on the London stage. UNEMPLOYMENT, XiETRENCH- '. MENT AND FINANCE. Mention had bben. mftde oi unemployment. It was wrong to say the Government had not been doing, anything for employment. They had done more during the last?. twelve months than at any similar period m -the country's history. It Was contrary to fact to' state that there ; were thousands of unemployed m New Zealand. Tlrere were about 220,000 ,wbrkers m the Dominion, and there were riot more than 2000 who , could , strictly \be called unemployed. The percentage of unemployed' was smaller, m New Zealand than m any country \in the world. Retrenchment hadi also been mentioned. The Government had decided to acquire an area of land m both Islands for the use of those being retrenched, whose superannuation did not exceed £75 a. year. As to general defence, he had' already stated that the Government proposed ;to deal with it by way legislation; It would be inoppor. tune to give the Jdetails. of it now, but he believed the proposal of the (jovcrnm'ent would meet with general support. The Dominion could not, afford to spend a million a, year on. defence, but Cabinet would proposo a scheme, which "would be moro costly than the present scheme. The Government also recognised tho difficulties of finance, due to the f till of the price of wool, , flax, and frozen meat. No legislation to amelMsmte tho position could be brought into operation before 1 January next. Ho reckoned he would be able to do gopd service for the Dominion m this l-fespect during his visit to the Old Country. As to the general financial position, wonderfully good work liad been done during tho last few years, and his idea was to devise a scheme by which private, borrowers could .borrow money at , reasonable rates. The House had decided New . Zealand should, be represented at the conference and if they resolved he was to go the responsibility would not be his.