AN IMPROMPTU SPEECH.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11494, 29 January 1903, Page 5

AN IMPROMPTU SPEECH.

COLONIAL OBLIGATIONS.

Mr Chamberlain's visit to Durban culminated on Saturday night, December 27th, in a scene of an extraordinary nature. While dining in the hotei -with the leading _ residents a vast crowd of nearly 3000 peop.e assembled outsida determined to get a speech. After waiting for hours, singing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow," a.nd setting up cries of "Speech," Mr Chamberlain appeared. Tha asht was a wonderful one. The crowd had collected almost spontaneously, ami before the hotel was a vast sea of faces, quiet and waiting. The moment Mr Chamberlain appeared tflia s-xene was one of the wi.dest excitement, the peop.e cheering, shotting, and yelling "Good Old Joe-" Altogether it was a magnifiosnt spectacle. Mr Chamberlain at last obtained a hearing. Hβ said h-e did not. intend to make a speech, bub to listen to> the opinions of others. Tha Mother Country, the Colonial Secretary added, rsQognised its responsibility towards its oversea kinsmen. The people welcomed him as a sign of a new condition of things, though some of them possibly accorded him a personal', welcome, as there were a number of Birmingham men present. Then, amid a profound silence, ha admonished his audience on t-heir duties towards the Mother Country. England was willing and ready to cherish her children as long as they were children, hut when they reached manhood she expected tthem to help themselves. Up to the present the Mother Country had taken almost the whols burden upon her shoulders, and now she expected the colonies to undertake a sfm£ar obligation. The Colonial Secretary concluded with a fine peroration. He urged them to take up their duties as members of a grand Empire, the foundations of which were based upon mutual help. At the conclusion of the speech there was another frantic outburst of enthusiasm. The scene was picturesque in the extreme. The guests -were in evening clothes, and the ladies in dinner dresses, the brilliant group being shown up by the *Lectric light. Below, the crowd, .wed and uproarious in turn, presenter? a right never to b? forgotten. After "For Hs's a Jolty Good Fellow," the National Anthem was s>ung. Mr Chamberlain and the guests left the balcony amid the waving of hats and sticks, the scene being one of extraordinary enthusiasm.