GENERAL HAMILTON AT NEW PLYMOUTH.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14978, 21 May 1914, Page 7

GENERAL HAMILTON AT NEW PLYMOUTH.

REFERENCE TO JAPANESE PRESS CRITICISM. (PKESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) NEW PLYMOUTH, May 20. General Sir lan Hamilton after inspecting tho Senior Ca'dete, was entertained at dinner, and afterwarde visited the Veterans' function, where, in a speech, ho said that he was pleased with the work of tho Cadots in Taranaki, and in New Zealand- generally. Referring to South Axrica, lie said that the war had helped to sweep away the old racial bitterness which would never return. Tho Boers, who formerly avoided Natal as being purely British territory, now visited it -frequently as a seaside resort. In a speech this morning General Hamilton referred to the- recent Press cable message from Tokio, concerning his reported remarks at Auckland to the effect that tho Pacific would bo tho possiblo ground of battle between tho Asiatics and Europeans. He said he was unfortunate in incurring tho displeasure of certain Press organs of an allied Power, but the report on which the displeasure was based must have been "spiced" crossing the tropics'. He had merely put a hypothetical case that seemed sound theory, to the effect that as the nations grew bigger, wars became less frequent, but more terrible. He could imagine a period when tho empires would comprise great continents, and such a continental empire might have to face a contest of arms or economics, and he had said that New Zealand would dc well to bo prepared, and was preparing, for the millennium or Armageddon.

In an interview with a "NVw.s" reporter, General Hamilton .said ho had given no foundation for tho rumour (as published in a Napier nev/spapor) that he would condemn the Territorial system. No report would escape him til] ho had his foot on tho gangway of the .boat which took him from New Zealand.