Wairarapa Daily Times [ESTABLISHED OVER 50 YEARS.] FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1925. CONSULTING THE DOMINIONS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 19 June 1925, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [ESTABLISHED OVER 50 YEARS.] FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1925. CONSULTING THE DOMINIONS.

A real endeavour is being made by the authorities at Home to consult the (Dominions more on international matters as affecting the British Empire than was formerly the ease. The aim of the endeavour to improve tho facilities for consultation i 3 to enable the dominions to be acquainted with the international position at every stage as it develops. There could be no greater fallacy than that the dominions are free to make a choice when Britain is at war. Britain’s enemies automatically become theirs. We may take no active part; we m'ay, in practice, be quite untouched. It ha 9 chanced that Britain’s enemies have never been strong enough to molest us, but we owe our immunity to circumstances which may not always beipresent, and not to 'any principle of;: international law. The crux of the matter is that our liability to be involved in war is not affected one way or another by the possession of.a voice in foreign affairs or consultative machinery. These are merely questions of domestic import ,ahd as far as the said liability is concerned, it will not make the slightest difference whether we have a representative in London, or none at all, or a whole panel of them.

quarters new Prime Minister, with his vigorous personality, is cap* able, of leading the -party through the general'elections back to the Treasury benches with a working majority. If there is such a belief in Ministerial; quarters, then it is to be' that a, change of opinion will come quickly. The world’s political finger is pointing to the success, of Labour., An . various: parts of the British Empire as the re-i suit of the splitting of votes. Labour • stands to win as the,; result of - vote-1 splitting in this Dominion, - and the longer the fusion of the Reform and Liberal parties is delayed ;the greater will be the danger from Labour, u The Franklin by-election ,was evidence of what an amalgamation of the- two parties would, produce.) A clear-cut issue between Reform and Labour resulted in an increase in the majority of ■Reform by one! thousand votes on the general election figures, due to the fact that very many Liberals voted with the Reformers. No stronger evidence of the benefit of fusion to both parties could be produced! than this week’s by-election.