The Sun THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1918. THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume V, Issue 1490, 21 November 1918, Page 4

The Sun THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1918. THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

The influenza epidemic has seriously interfered with the Coalition Government's plans to rattle through a programme of unavoidable Parliamentary business in time to allow of Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward leaving for London early in December. The Sun has already expressed very strong opinions about the way the interests of the country are being sacrificed to the vagaries of the party leaders and sees no reason to modify the views already expressed. It is, no doubt, desirable enough, that New Zealand should be adequately represented in London while peace negotiations are in progress, and under normal conditions it would be fitting that the Prime Minister should be on the spot. But our party leaders went off to England about five months ago when there was no particular necessity for it, and let their work get seriously into arrears. Had they stuck to their posts, the session would have been over by now, and, perhaps, the country would have been reconciled to another trip. But under the present circumstances there is no justification whatever for Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward leaving the Dominion until two or three important questions are settled. The first is that of an election, it having been conclusively proved by byelections that the country has no confidence in the Coalition, and it is the bounden duty of the respective parties, none of whom can command a Parliamentary majority, to submit themselves to the judgment of the electors with a view to restoring normal conditions and securing public administration by a Ministry that represents the will of the country. The next vital matter to be dealt with is the formulation of a definite policy on the question of demobilisation and repatriation. The other day we were told that the job had been turned over to Sir James Allen, Mr Guthrie, Mr MacDonald and Mr Hanan. It is difficult to write temperately of a Government that trifles in such a reprehensible manner with issues so seriously affecting the whole future welfare of the Dominion, and the economic condition of so many thousands of its inhabitants. The public has had sufficient experience of Sir James Allen during the past four years to know that he requires a prolonged rest from arduous public duties, and it will have no faith whatever in his ability to deal with repatriation problems. Mr MacDonakl and Mr Hanan have both proved themselves utter failures as Ministers, and Mr Guthrie's political career up to the present has been so completely undistinguished that we cannot conceive him possessing any abilities that are likely to be useful to the country in tackling the problem of repatriation. Obviously repatriation is a task for men of the calibre of Mr W. D. Hunt, Mr Beauchamp, Mr Mcintosh, and a number of others whose names will readily suggest themselves to the minds of our readers. The decision to entrust it to a group of politicians in whom no one has any faith whatever, will be received with alarm and disgust. The Sun, however, has a further suggestion to make which it commends to those members of Parliament with sufficient sense of their duty to their constituents to protest against the wrong that will be done to the Dominion by the early departure of the party leaders and the postponement of the elections for another year. It is this: that the Government should depute Sir James Allen (whose work as Defence Minister is done so far as organising Expeditionary Forces is concerned) to go to England, and that the party leaders should remain at home to clear up the whole political situation by an early appeal to the country. With all Sir James Allen's faults, if there is one public question on which he is an authority, and on which his opinion is entitled to respect, it is on the suhject of Imperial relations, and the less important question of the strategic future of the Pacific. These matters are largely a sealed book to Mr Massey, who says bluntly enough that he doesn't want the Germans back "in Samoa, and can shout with Mr Hughes for Imperial preference, without being able to formulate sound reasons for either. Sir James Allen would represent the Dominion in London while the Peace Conference was sitting, with credit and dignity, and his absence would not seriously interfere with the consideration of the Dominion's domestic affairs, which require to be put on a very different footing without any further delay.