The Sun FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1918. A TRYING ORDEAL.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume V, Issue 1293, 5 April 1918, Page 4

The Sun FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1918. A TRYING ORDEAL.

It would be insincere of us to offer our congratulations to Sir James Allen on the presentation made him at a small but select gathering last evening. The Minister is entitled to our sympathy rather in having been called to face such an ordeal, and we can imagine the relief with which he escaped with his album. With all his faults, Sir James Allen did not deserve to be placed in the situation which has just terminated. We expressed that opinion when the movement was first planned, and events since have confirmed our view. Even had Sir James been the most popular Minister in New Zealand, the time was inopportune for engineering a public recognition of his good work as understudy to Mr Massey, and his part in administering the Military Service Act. Rut certain citizens of Christchurch thought otherwise, and preliminaries were begun and developed, though it was obvious to all but these devoted admirers of the Defence Minister that the object of their esteem was being sorely embarrassed by their misguided appreciation. The movement fell flat from the outset, and never after regained the perpendicular. The very large section of the community that declines to assess service to the nation in terms of material rewards and gauds refused to be a party to placing Sir James Allen in a false position. Nevertheless, careless or unconscious of the Minister's feelings, the promoters went their way, eventually bringing up before the recipient yesterday with an illustrated album containing, among other things, the usual address of appreciation and congratulation. One of our morning contemporaries described the presentation as coming from the citizens of Christchurch. The other enlarged the sphere of representation from the city to the province. Roth are inaccurate. Christchurch as a whole, Canterbury as a whole, had nothing to do with the movement or the gift. If that fact does not convince the authors of the presentation that their project was illtimed and farcical, they are hopeless. In saying so, we have no intention of belittling Sir James Allen's services to the Dominion as Defence Minister. Even his bitterest political opponents must admit, and are willing to admit, that Sir James Allen has not spared himself in carrying out the exacting duties which have fallen to his lot since the Dominion entered the world struggle. The war has brought him, as it has brought thousands of other parents, acute sorrow. Rut always the Minister of Defence has directed his utmost energies to the work in hand. His loyalty to the great ideal is not to be doubted, and it is because of that record that we are impatient of those who would treat him—possibly with the best intention in the world—as a prize schoolboy would be treated at the end of the term. A more futile business than this presentation it would be hard to conceive. However, the trying ceremony is over at last, and the Minister will be able to breathe freely once more.