OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 16081, 22 April 1924, Page 4

OTHER PAPERS’ OPINIONS.

FRANCE AND GERMANY. It is to Mr Massey’s credit that he has consistently advocated sound views in regard to the position of , France in Europe. Wo are led to note this by -Air Massey’s speech at the unveiling of the Bluff war memorial. incidentally lie dealt at some length with the havoc wrought in France (luring the war, and from this he proceeded to justify the present attitude of France. As he pointed out, Germany had invaded France twice within '.fifty years, and France is acting rightly in being apprehensive of a repetition and is seeking to ensure herself against it. This is good sound sense on the part of Air Massey in endorsing it in outspoken fashion. The time will come when critics of the Imperial Government will lie able to point the moral more emphatically, and to make clear that if wisdom and justice had characterised the Governments which have been in office since tlie armistice Britain, instead of acting as a drag upon France, would have co-operated with her. —Napier i Daily Telegraph.

WHY NOT A SETTLEMENT? The railwaymen are offered an increase falling short by only a few pen<-e W the amount Mr Connelly says Hey i eed to give the basic wave tin: same purchasing power as

in 1914. The only condition an ached to this offer is that the railwaymen should revert to the hours they worked in 1914, and, indeed, until March, 1921. A settlement surely ought to be possible on this oasis. Mr Connelly, it is true, contends that, the railwaymen are entitled to be placed in an even better position as regards wages than they occupied in 1914. but this claim manifestly is not one that could be easily supporteo. The country as a whole is poorer than it was on account of the late war, and if any one section of the wage earners of the Dominion escapes bearing its share of the hardens imposed by the war it con only do so by unjust favouritism, at the expense of other sections of wageearners. —Dominion, Wellington.