MR. W. M. HUGHES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18666, 23 December 1922, Page 5

MR. W. M. HUGHES.

IXJNDON PRESS TRIBUTE. LONDON, Dec. 21. The Morning Post, in an editorial ■ says that a certain section of English public opinion is indecently exultant regarding the possible exit of Mr I Hughes from office, if not from active participation in Australian politics. What a dreadful person Mr HugSes is! If he had refused to stand by the Mother Country in her hour of gravest peril, if he had made a separate agreement with the enemy, and lif he had prevailed upon his fellowcountrymen to stay at home, then we may take it his health to-day would have been drunk In repeatea potations. Mr Hughes is assertive, obstinate, idealistic and inspired. He is the very embodiment of the stuff from which Empires are made. He fought as hard in the great cause as those Australian soldiers who inspired so wholesome a dread in 1/ie Germans. Whatever may be the result of the elections, a vast majority of Englishmen salute in Mr Hughes a great Imperialist. Australia may need a new administration; that is Australia's business, but Mr Hughes, if he loses office, wifi never lose the affection and respect of the race for whose survival and victory he fought in the hour of crisis. He was great in the war, also great in peace, almost alone among the “minor” statesmen. He saw through President Wilson’s Pacifism, Mr Lloyd George’s megalomania, brushed aside humbug, and strove hard to come into touch with realities. If his counsels had been listened to the world might have been at peace to-day.