Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, JUNE 2. 1913. THE DEFENCE: MINISTER.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 13090, 2 June 1913, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY E VENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, JUNE 2. 1913. THE DEFENCE: MINISTER.

Tlie Hon. James Allen, New Zealand's Minister for Defence and .Finance, . re- ' turns to the Dominion to-morrow from his round-the-world tour, the effect of , which has. , doubtless been .to . broaden his horizon and bring .Mm into intimate touch with the great problems of the Empire. Mr Allen's New Zealand friends will be eager to learn from him i the results of -his mission; particularly m regard to matters of defence, his , negotiations concerning which have been r somewhat obscure, with the limited hill formation tlitvt has- been -available. 1 Meantime it is interesting to record [' the (impressions, of an Australian I journalist with whom he came m con- . tact m the City of Big Smoke. "Mr : Allen," according to the Sydney Sun's . London correspondent, "arrived m , London' alert, . excited, enthusiastic ' about his mission, and bubbling over with sufficient vitality to have provided . enough horse-power to drive the whole i of tlie London trams. He was as I bright and vigorous as a racehorse, trained to the hour, going down to the [ post revelling m the race ahead of it. , To-day he sailed for Canada en "route 1 for New Zealand, and m tlie interval lie I had lost much of his energy, most of his p vitality, a great, deal of Ms hope, and i some of his enthusiasm. He was bear--1 ing all the marks of two months' pro- ' longed amd strenuous conflict with the , insular conqeption of Imperialism' • which obtains m some of tlie highest quarters m Great Britain, and ho looked like a tired steeplechaser, which lobs wearily towards the winning post:'- Ari immense amount of work, according to the correspondent, Jias been done ;by Colonel Allen during his sojourn ' m London, and the Dominion will greatly benefit . by his untiring investigation •of matters ' directly 1 concerning its domestic and external affairs. "In his own quiet, restrained, thorough, way, Colonel Allen has made an impression oh the governing classes m London, the men who run the machine, greater, than that of any New Zealander since the late Mr Richard He has not advertised himself. He has not indulged m wild rhetorical spseche3 about the crimson, thread of kinship. He lias not asked the statesmen at Westminster to accept him as an inspired prophet of Empire thought and governance. He has hot requested the city men to accept him as a heaven-born financier, capable of teaching them points m an intricate business, and he has mixed with rich aaid poor, nobles' and commoners with tho same unpretentious', pleasant manner. Men of the same trend of thought are enthusiastic about his mature sagacity, ( and the opponent:) of the policy lie lias advocated pay him the tribute of saying that he has Caesar's gift of disarming his- critics. Colonel Allen will return to New Zealand a bigger mail than ho was when, he ventured into the great world of London, for he has now not an academic, but a practical, knowledge of tine forces which are moulding the future of the Empire at its' centre. When he first arrived .m London, the correspondent goes, on to State, Colonel Allen spok-3 freely of his own personal view's upon tlie subject of Naval Defence m ' "fT.-c' Pacific, and he was most careful, whenever interrogated upon' this subject, to explain that hs was not necessarily speaking for his colleagues 1 as a Cabinet. Onoa he got to grips with the Admiralty, however, his lips were sealed, 'and no slightest hint of the tortuous pro-; gress or of the deliberations'' ,of / the Imperial Defence Committee which he attended; ■" fell'' from them. Yet it was easy to divine, after his proposals' had been canvassed By the First Lords for some time, that they were making somewhat heavy weather, and that he was meeting witli' far more resistance to his- scheme than he had anticipated. The navy which he suggested and tlna navy : which the Admiralty' are prepared to regard as adequate to Empirte needs are somewhat widely separated, and the New Zealand Minister has had to make very substantial compromises, which means that, the scheme as it comes from their conferences may be a little distasteful , to tlie Dominion , be - cause the general principle of a local navy has been hedged around im such a way that it no longer represents the full counterpart of • the Australian Navy, which was the objective that New Zealand ' Ministers had before them. The conipleted scheme is m Colonel Allen's portfolio, and': its details will .not be made public until it has been laid before the Cabinet and' adopted 1 or rejected. Unless I am much mistaken," tha correspondent adds, "the Cabinet will seek further amendments beforo agreeing to this' compromise ' m Which an effort lias been made to reconcile conflicting policies. The Admiralty is adamant upon the . point of having one navy. It does not matter that it has yielded to the Commonwealth, and that Mr Churchill, m his' recent, speech, practically told the dominions they must provide their own " protection. The Lords of the Admiralty have implanted m their minds, ap unshiftable conception 'of concentration and control from whr they will not willingly budge. At th: present moment they and the Government are indignant at tlie prospective loss of the three battleships promised by Canada. They refuse to be com-

forted by the fact that as an alternative I Canada will build and maintain a fleet of her own. Using dangerous terms loosely, they talk about the Canadian Unit. Scheme as being anti -Imperial, and a.s representing disintegrating influences. They refuse to recognise tin: the dominions are developing a nationalism of their own which is as truly Imperial as the self-centred policy pursued by the Admiralty. The trouble is, of course, that the. Lords of the Admiralty and the members of the Ministrydo not move abroad, and have no psr sonal acquaintance with the intense patriotism of tlie outer Empire, and lacking this knowledge are clinging to an artificial idea of Empire unity. Every oversea visitor who has come to London has been struck by the ignorance — "ifc is a hard ahd'Miarsh word, but the only one which describes the want Of practical information possessed by Ministers — which -.obtains m governing circles. lam not going to say that Colonel Allen had this m mind, though I may entertain a shrewd suspicion to. that effect, when, m a farewell conversation, he remarked that it would be of infinite value to the whole Empire if the" members of His Majesty's Government m Great Britain could only be induced to make a tour of the dominions; and so gain a firsthand knowledge of t the peoples and the policies with which they Were bound to come into closer relation as. the bonds of -Empire were drawn tighter. I could not help feeling that Golonel Allen had been disappointed m the absence of accurate information and m the proper gauging of public opinion m the dominions when he discovered amongst the men -to whom the conduct of British politics are entrusted. They have been gazing far too long at the purely British aspect of Empire, and they need to accommodate their sight to the aspirations of the new nations. Regarding the proposed expeditionary force, the correspondent after conversation with Colonel Allen, gives this explanation: — Private cable messages received m London indicate that New Zealand has been swept by a violent political storm, because Colonel Allen has offered an expeditionary lorce to Great Britain, It being made to appear that the Dominion was willy-nilly to have a permanent army, which would be at the beck and call of the Mother Country.. Nothing couid well be, further from the truth. The plans for the expeditionary force are how on their way to Wellington. They provide that of the civilian soldiery which New Zealand is training for her own defence, a certain number shall of their own free will be given extra training and be 'kept supplied with the" necessary arms and equipment of the same standard as those employed m the British Army, so that if Great Britain should become Involved m a death struggle with any. other nation, and should -ask assistance from her daughter dominions, New Zealand will have a force ready for Instant despatch. You see that It will be a voluntary force, recruited' at the men's own 'desire, from the National Defence Force, and thai" Its despatch overseas is dependent upon ah "if,'* and is riot compplsory, arid.; that "if" is a-regnest from Great Britain, an application which, I venture to' say, no dominion .would ever refuse. ; On tlie subject of finance it is said that opportunity to • improve the conditions under which loans' are floated m "London has be&n ..observed" by'', 'Colonel Allen, but he is far too '" worldly- wisia a man to think that the comparatively modest financial requirements of Australasia can revolutionise the old-established practices of the great financial institu- 1 tions and the huge moneyed interests of j London. Moving amongst City men, Colonel Allen had it .dinned into his j ears tliat. comparatively cheap money can only be obtained from now onwards by the creation of proper sinking funds m connection with every new flotation or renewal. The sinking fund- has m the mind of the investor become an essential part of sound national' finance, and no loan will be well received by the people who have savings unless'"they have this assurance" of automatic liquidation. New Zealand has made a good start 'with the sinking fund scheme originated by v Sir upseph Ward, and this will probably have to be supplemented and improved;.