The Christchurch Star. PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1932. THE KING’S RESPONSIBILITY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 521, 2 August 1932, Page 6

The Christchurch Star. PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1932. THE KING’S RESPONSIBILITY.

REATLY as any attack on the King is to he deplored, Mr H. G. Wells’s outburst will serve a useful purpose, not only in the reaction it must set up against an obviously unsubstantiated charge, but in its refutation of the untenable assumption that the “ proper political and social neutrality of the King ” reduces his Majesty to a mere figurehead. That is by no means the case. As .we have seen in the action of the King’s representative in New South Wales, the Crown is the ultimate guardian of the people’s self-governing rights, and even if the King in the crisis which brought about political stability in the Old Country had disregarded the advice of his Ministers, which he did not do, the result of the elections of October last would have been an overwhelming vindication of his action. Actually he followed the advice of his Prime Minister, Mr MacDonald, in a course that by no stretch of the imagination led to “ a movement for the grinding of the faces of the needy in the interest of the debt collectors.” It is at this stage, indeed, that a certain inconsistency appears in Mr Wells’s attack on the Labour Part}'. It was the party as a party that declined to face up to the drastic economies that have been so fully vindicated by the recent course of events, and as Commander Kenworthy suggests, the real villains of the piece—that is, from the Wells viewpoint—were Mr MacDonald and Viscount Snowden. WAR MEMORIAL FUNDS. -~fI~'HERE is a natural reluctance among returned soldiers to do anything that might suggest indifference to the desire of the community to erect permanent memorials to the men who gave their lives in the Great War, but the Returned Soldiers’ Association would be justified, we think, in expressing the view that Christchurch has an adequate memorial of rare beauty and symbolism in the Bridge of Remembrance, and that the erection of a column, especially in Cathedral Square, where it would be dwarfed by the Cathedral, would be a mistake. On these matters the views of the returned soldiers should be greatly deferred to. The Christchurch Association, therefore, has taken a very wise course in suggesting that it should be permitted to make its views known to a meeting of subscribers to the memorial column fund. At present the association is rather concerned with securing a portion of the interest earned by the fund for the relief of distress, but the larger question might reasonably be discussed. GERMANY’S PROBLEMS. r pilE MAINTENANCE of the status quo in Germany is likely to be assured by the indecisive results of the election, and apart from the dangers inherent in the armed camps of the political parties, there is a possibility that the national love of discipline will express itself in constitutional action. For all that the predictions of a political stalemate have been borne out, and German statesmen cannot feel that they are yet free from the coercion of election tactics in a new campaign that may be launched on any front. THE MAORI BY-ELECTION. /ANE of the characteristics that have placed the Maori in so favoured a position in relation to the white race in New Zealand is his sound common sense in a crisis. It has been reflected, politically, in the maintenance of the Coalition Government now in office, and in the election of a representative to fill the Southern Maori seat to-morrow the electors arc not likely to depart from traditional policy. The election, however, is of sufficient interest to warrant a muster of all Coalition supporters, for there is always a danger in political indifference, and especially so at a time when the need for stable government is paramount.