The Press Tuesday, June 9, 1925. Imperial Press Conference.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18403, 9 June 1925, Page 8

The Press Tuesday, June 9, 1925. Imperial Press Conference.

We do not juppose that, the "revised "list" of delegates to the Imperial Press Conference will mean much to readers who are not Press workcrs-them-selvcs. It will not in fact mean much to many newspaper men, since British journalism is still anonymous and impersonal. But the Conference itself means a good deal to the community, and we are sure there is public interest in tho fact that it will be attended,' by the representatives of journals so unlike as "The Times" and "Punch," and that the representatives of the youngest newspapers in the Empire will have for companions the owners, managers or editors of some of the oldest, wealthiest, and most influential journals produced in tho English tongue. It'is an arresting fact that the newspapers of the British Empire have only twice before arranged an Empire Conference. When it is remembered that the business of the Press is publicity, and that 'the form its publicity takes determines to a very great extent the form the Empire will take, it is a striking indication of the English character that it has shown no desire for a standardised Press. The gathering which is to meet in Melbourne in a few weeks will not spend fivo minutes in seeking to destroy any newspaper's individuality, but of no other nation could it be. added that, the public would bo very much alarmed if it did. We have ; an Empire like np other in history, and it expresses itself through a Press.that with all its weaknesses-r-its heaviness. (if . anybody likes, its dullness) as compared with the newspapers of France, or its tameness compared with the Press of America—a Press that with all its weaknesses and faults ■is more independent and free than any Press tho world has yet seen. And it is the representatives of that Press—in the spirit of it but under no pledge or bond—who are to meet in September to discuss the Empire's affairs from the Press point of view. As we havo just said, "they have met only twice before—in. London in 1909, and theu in Canada, again five years ago after the long and distracting interruption of the Great War, And if it is true that the Pacific is now the ocean of destiny instead of the Atlantic, it must be theease 'that thp 1925 Conference in Australia will outclass the others in interest and'importance. For the Homeland after all, though it changes, is incapable of sudden and violent change in thoso respects in which the newspapers are j its mouthpiece. It has an established social system, a political system which can be violently disturbed but Dot ended;, and constant and now quite close; contact with its Atlantic. neighbour America and t its great Dominion of Canada. But in Australia and New Zealand wo are too remote for vital contact. UntiLscionc© has' in fact as well as in rlworical phrases bridged space and annihilated distance we shall continue to find it difficult to maintain the traditions of the Northern Hemisphere, and are already in many directions developing a civilisation of tho South and East. It is to be remembered always that Australia alone is nearly as big as the United* States, and that if it is an empty country now—-or rather because it is an empty country now—its next quarter of a century must bo a profoundly important stage in the history not only of the Empire, but" of all tho nations bordering on the Pacific. Tho truth may very easily" be that there has never yet been so important a gathoring in the Southern Hemisphery as that whoso "revised list ; of representatives?', appears .oh 'our cable page this morning, but whatever history lias to say about that, it is beyond question that there was never so important a gathering in the history of Jho British Press—which means more than most people imagine, in the hiatory of the British race.