AT THE DOOR OF A NEW ERA.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16433, 29 January 1919, Page 9

AT THE DOOR OF A NEW ERA.

THIS HIGH COM3IISSIONER IN

SCOTLAND.

U'ROJI lICH OWN' COIUtKSrONDENT.)

.LONDON, November 19,

"While Sir Thomas Mackenzie was in Scotland last week, and when the armistice was signed, he was the guest of the Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce at a luncheon, presided over by Mr J. C'. Glegg. Sir Thomas said it has been the custom of a good many of the New Zealand soldiers after they arrived in London to proceed to Scotland, and they had told him and others there were none they so wished to be associated with in the battlefield as Scotchmen. New Zealanders, he continued, had been sternly associated with this war, and they wanted to see justice sternly carried out; not in order to he vindictive, but in order that those who took in hand to destroy civilisation and reduce our own people to slavery should understand tluit they were not going to carry otic those works without some penalties that justiie demanded. If there were 110 economic barriers established against the enemy other than would be extended towards our Allies, then that would radically affect the routes of the oversea Dominions in carrying oufc their trade. Since the outbreak of the war New Zealand had placed on the Statute Book an Act which imposed on enemy goods a, tax of 50 per cent, over that imposed on goods coming from any other country.

The New Zealanders regarded it from this standpoint—the Germans were undesirable people to have anything to do with in an\\ way whatever, -and therefore thev wanted 110 trade connexion- with them whatever beyond what as absolutely unavoidable. He hoped no attempt would he made to restore the German colonies to ' the German people, 'not because we wanted their land. We wanted no more territory, hut we wanted to be rid ol' such wretched and unsatisfactory creatures as the Germans. The part the colonies should be called upon to play in defence of the Empire and in other things was not realised, and that must be remedied if they were to keep together with the Mother Country.

"We are at the door of a new era," continued the High Commissioner, •'and we hope, with Mr Balfour, that the opportunity will be seized for providing lor it and laying our defences on such lines as will make for a, wider dominion and a greater civilisation. There had been too narrow a vision of Empire on the part of our rulers m this seat of Empire. It was not intentional on their part, but arose from the fact that they were not moving about and had not a larger view of tho country they controlled. Imagine a farmer nianaf>inf; the whole of his estate from his stackyard." "You must recollect that within the next fifty years the. populations of our colonies will exceed the population of the Mother Country, and ' that the colonies are out of their childhood. They must he related to the Mother Country rather as strong robust sons who have to be taken into a common partnership. (Applause.) That means that their voice must he heard in the Councils of the Empire if thpy arc to contribute their proportion to its upkeep and defence. (Applause.) Merc trifling with the situation will not do. There are forces of unrest abroad in the colonies as well as in Europe, and there are those who would like to sever connexion with the Mother Country. This war happily has brought the sons of the Empire together, hut they have also been disillusioned as to the administration of their country, and the colonies are resolved that other conditions must obtain if this Empire is to continue. 1 hope that the people* at home here will consider these questions deeply. (Applause.) On the binding together of our whole Empire depends the peace of the -world, and there should be some economic barriers against the forces that would endeavour to destroy us. Are we at this juncture going to supply Germany and Austria, whose machinery is untouched by the war. with material to W £ o ' i' they have destroyed much of the manufacturing plant of France, one of our most faithful Allies These things must not be. (Applause.) These are Questions that must be threshed out fiercely at the Peace Conference. s, , n V vo mnst take that Germany shall never aasain lie in a position to strike us atrnin as she has done."