Mr. Te Water's Blunder The statement on German colonies made
in Canada by Mr. Te Water, the High Commissioner of South Africa in London, was surely a prime example of how things ought not to be done. Mr. Te Water may in the first instance have been misrepresented, as he suggests, but even on the basis of what he admits he said he stands condemned. He is not a member of the South African Government ; and the position which he holds in London, so far from giving him any authority to pronounce on such a subject in Canada, was a cogent reason why he should have kept silence. British public opinion is rightly very patient about anything done by a Dominion personality ; but if it had happened to be the Ambassador of a foreign Power in London who had gone over to Canada and used language that could plainly be construed as criticism of the Government to which he was accredited, his recall would have been requested. About the policy of holding a conference to discuss Germany's claim to colonies there is nothing new to say. The subject can quite properly be discussed, but in association with many other questions, notably disarmament. Great Britain no more rejects such a plan than Mr. Te Water. What made his remarks indefensible was their implication that she did, and that he was more open-minded than the Government to which he was accredited, to say nothing of the Government he represented.
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