Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7. THE INFLUENCE OF WEMBLEY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16579, 7 November 1924, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7. THE INFLUENCE OF WEMBLEY.

it may be that tho Daily Mail was exaggerating when it said this week that tin- national revival manifested at the recent elections was the out come ol Wembley’s sub-eonsoiousj influence,' but without a doubt tbe great Kxbil.ition now closed must have played some part in educating and moulding public opinion for the triumphant declaration in favor of Empire development made at the polls. Despite the fact that there was a good deal of bungling at the outset, and that the organiser failed to grasp their opportunities to tell other nations what, a great, thing they had in hand; despite, also, the/fact that Jupiter I’lnvius was not too kind and always came into evidence with discouraging weather conditions whenever there was a big open-air function, the Empire Exhibition is generndy acknowledged to have been an unqualified success. Its success, as another of the London papers, the Daily Express, states, cannot- be judged fairly from the material results achieved within the grounds of the Exposition itself'. The rami float ions of Wembley are incalculable. Many firms exhibiting have already been deluged with orders, bat it. is outside, the Exhibition, in tbe. country at. large, that the most advantages have accrued and are still accruing. There was natural disappointment amongst Dominion exhibitors due to the dropping of the preference proposals made at the last Imperial Conference. , This discouragement reduced; their endeavors at the Exhibition to promote national propaganda, but the object lesson afforded of what tlie Empire is. able to produce and of how, under proper legislative provisions, self-sustaining it can be made, was sufficient to create an entirely new impression in the minds of British electors, as the result of which, the Daily Express declares, “the day when Imperial preference in the British Empire will become an accomplished fact is approaching. The failure of Britain’s European markets, competition from Germany and other, countries, are forcing the attention of the nation to he value and advantages of Empire trade. Most of all, perhaps, the people of Great- Britain have been brought to realise Imperial potentialities and responsibilities through the education afforded by the British Empire Exhibition. So much Wembley lias done. It has stimulated a vivid, interest in the Empire, and opened up wonderful new vistas of Imperial endeavor. That in itself is a mighty achievement, of which the organisers mav well be proud.” . Re-1

cognition of the great value ot Wembley is shown in the insistent demand that the Exhibition should be re-opened next year. It is quite probable that the new Government will accede to the request to back the enterprise to the tune of a million pounds to enable this to be done. The idea is not merely to furnish another big playground- for English people mid for visitors to England, but to have for world view, and to stimulate British commerce, a great compendium of the Empire and its resources. New Zealand, unfortunately, is not able to see its way to assent to representation if the Exhibition is .re-opened. Many of the exhibits, displayed in. its court are required for the exhibition to be field at Dunedin next year, but; ijpart from this, the Government does not feel justified in incurring the additional expense involved in carrying on their court for another year. There will be reason for regret if Wembley is re-opened and New Zealand is absent, for this Dominion requires, all the advertisement it can get- if it is to secure proper development. It will not do merely to rest on past laurels —the wonderful impression made by the sturdy youth of the Dominion who went to war; the fine personalities of our Prime Ministers who have taken part in Imperial Councils; the excellent, though modest, display made at Wembley ; or even the prowess, of our footballers, now conquering the British Isles with: a series of unbroken victories. Nations, like commercial concerns, must advertise, and advertising to be successful must be continuous and progressive. It would pay New Zealand handsomely to lay out- a fixed sum every year for advertising the attractions and resources of the Dominion. Whether that advertising should take the form of a display such as was made in the Now Zealand court- at- Wembley, or whether it- should proceed, along lines adopted by Canada and other countries in the way of printed and cinema publicity we are not prepared 1 to state. Expert advice should be taken, and some genuine attempt made to keep the good impression registered by Wemblev permn.nent.lv fresh in- the minds of British folk. " _______ ! UNHAPPY GEORGIA: FATE OF A SMALL NATION: | One of the. saddest national tragedies in history has recently been enacted on the shores of the Black. Sea-, though very few details of the event have readied the outside world. The little republic of Georgia has been valiantly striving for the independence which wn > 1 conceded to it four years ago, but which has been barbarously overriden by Soviet Russia. In 1918 Georgia, which was a -State of Southern Russia with a peculiarly industrious and progressive population, proclaimed its national independence, and this was recognised by all the ■ great- - Powers and also by Soviet Russia. In 1920 the Soviet Government signed a treaty with Georgia, whereby all intervention in the affairs of the little republic was formally renounced by Russia. That- pledge was made oqly to be broken in the customary Soviet, manner. After several months of fruitless intriguing against the Georgian Gov eminent the country was invaded bv four Russian, armies, which, after five /wepks of fighting, completed the subjugation of the people and made Georgia once again a- slave state. The Assembly, which on the popular vote comprised almost entirely Mensheviks, or op - portents of Bolshevism, was dissolved, and a puppet Government- of nondescript Bolsheviks set. lip, held in office by Bus-’ sian bayonets. ,Since then the country has been treated simply as part of the “Union of Socialist- Soviet- Republics,” and the--unhappy inhabitants who . had sided with the deposed Government were treated with the utmost brutality of pevsqeu.tioh. M. Jordanin, the exiled President of the National Government overthrown in 1921 lias declared: “The Georgian people have been subjected to persecutions unhead of and unknown in the nation’s history.” In an appeal to the Into Government of Britain he stated: “I beg you, in the name of martyrised Georgia to propose to the Moscow Government to stop the shedding of blood and to settle the conflict- by

pacific means through arbitration.” Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, who in 1920 visited Georgia and described it as a model Socialist republic, appears to have been deaf to that appeal, for in the recent negotiations with the Soviet delegation in London nothing was done to provide that emancipation for Georgia should be a, sine qua non to Britain’s negotiation of a treaty with Russia. Mr. MacDonald had been most indignant, when Georgia's independence was ravaged l . In .n article in “Forward” he wrote in scathing terms about ■ Russia’s breach of agreement. Ilis henchman, Mr. Snowden. seriously questioned the Conservative Government then in power in England as to why they did not take means to assist, the Georgians to recover their freedom. The Labor party conference at- Brighton in 1921 passed a resolution which stated: “In view of the fact that.the late Government of the Georgian Republic has been suppressed by armed force . . .this Conference, expresses its sympathy with the Georgian people, and', its ronvmtion that they should he allowed a choice, free from m’litary pressure, in determining, the form of Government under which they are to live.” Yet Mr. Ramsay MacDonald and his colleagues when in a, position of responsibility did nothing to right the Georgian situation, but l’Uthei consorted with arid made treaty with, the oppressors. It is no exaggeration to say that the Georgians were oppressed.. It was not for sheer love- of adventure that many thousands of peasants a few months ago took fate into their hands, and though scarcely armed at all, except with pickaxes and the rocks that they rolled down the mountain sides, wiping out, whole. companies of their enemies, commenced their revolution. The Red General staff poured 60,000 troops into the' Caucasus to suppress the so-called insurrection, and' there seems little reason to doubt that Georgia has once more been overwhelmed by military power, and treated with the utmost severity. There have'been daily reports in the Soviet, press of the shooting of batches of captured insurrectionists. Proclaim lion has been made of threats of the utmost,_ ruthlessness. -Soviet- leaders show no mercy, and the probability is that very few of those which participated in the’ revolution, unless they succeeded u. escaping into Turkey, will be left alive So another little nation has gone to the wall, under barbarities just as foul as t-ho-se which were perpetrated in Armenia under Turkish misgovemment. The cry of anguished Georgia lias found no response from the civilised powers, and h is not to the credit of the Socialist Governments of Britain and France that they should, under the circumstances, have completed any treaty with tlu. (Soviet- which did not- effect, as one of its provisions, emancipation for this oppressed people. It should not be overlooked that the motive for the occupn • tion of Georgia was to secure unhampered control of a strip of territory between tho Black Sea and Caspian, which opens the way for Russia to all the Middle- East from Anatolia fo the Indian frontier. The Soviet seems determined at all costs to strike a blow at Britain through India and the Middle East. British foreign policy must now be shaped to counteract the move on India and* to re-establish Georgia as an independent buffer state.