The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1909. THE PRESS CONFERENCE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 583, 11 August 1909, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1909. THE PRESS CONFERENCE.

. The reports of 1 the final sittings of. the Press Conference, which closed at the end of June, aro now to hand, and from them it is possible to estimate tho results of this most interesting.product of the new Imperial movement. Of courso, as one of tho West Australian delegates observed, tho real results of the Conference will not be found in the minutes of the meetings. "They would be greater in an indirect sense than they had been directly. The Muflace ttat J»d been brought to bear

upon the overseas delegates could not fail to have very great effects upon their writings iii the future." Although it must be obvious that not one single delegate could have accurately represented the public feeling in his constituency on every point, yet the delegates in the mass could not but have made up a miniature of the public opinion of the Empire.. Reading over again tho full reports sent us by the Conference Committee, we cannot avoid feeling that the eloquence of the delegates was almost wholly an exposition of the obvious. The general agreement between them on almost every question—the ques-. tion of cable rates was a. notable exception—makes it clear that what they had met for was to. assure, each other of facts concerning which not one man in' a thousand ever entertained the smallest doubt. It is very doubtful whether the thinking men of Britain learned very much that they either did not already know or could learn by a simple act of mental projection. At the samo time the Conference must have given a new vividness to tho fact that the overseas Dominions are unshakeably faithful to the Imperial connection. And it is not a small thing that the Conference has utterly destroyed the vicious movement in some quarters at Home to work "colonial feeling" into the domestic quarrels of Britain.

, , The greatest result of the Conference was one which was probably not expected. No doubt it was hoped that Britain would do the learning, and tho visitors the teaching. The reverse has been the case; and we are heartily glad to know that the visiting editors will bring back to their desks a new understanding of the greatness of the United Kingdom. The London Times's. special correspondent with the 'delegates has made' these very significant observations:^-

From. tho lips of many of them. I havo heard expressions of admiration, and even of surprise, at the seriousness of purpose, the strenuous life, tho vigour, energy, ahd vitality which they found in all parts of tho kingdom visited by them. Some of the Australians, misled by British sclf-depreciation, which is invariably noted and exaggerated when it reaches their country, some of tho Canadians, deceived by American caricatures of tho effete and decadent Englishman, had come prepared to find a peoplo sapped of its manhood and tottering to its fall. How different was the impression actually made upon them by the spectacle of the Navy at Spitlieod, of the Army at Aldershot, of tho. groat foundries and shipbuilding works at Sheffield and Glasgow, and the crowds whom they saw, in tho great cities and the workmen with whom they conversed in our factories and dockyards I Over and over again I was told by the delegates that they were going back with tho. feeling that a country which could do what England is doing today is in.no danger of degeneration. Not that they are blind to tlie evidences of unemployment and distress, but rather that they. see, in spite of all deductions which must' ia fairness bo made, a strong and virile raco, facing its problems calmly, and prepared to meet the future with courage. : The correctness of this report is established by statements made by • some of tho leading delegates to the Daily Chronicle. Mil. Cunningham, of the Melbourne Argus, is not only impressed by the sound Imperialism of the people, but also by "the solidity, the activity, and the general air'of serious purpose that* we have found in all the industrial centres.'' Dr. | Stanky. Reed, of , the Times of India, has . .only the strongest condemnation : for those who hold Britain up as "a melancholy example of decadence." Dk. Ward, of the Sydney Telegraph, was equally emphatic: "The greatest impression made upon me was that of England's unex-hausted-and inexhaustible vitality. The Protectionists in our Country are always saying that England is a country going down, decadent, and being ruined. I : find a country that, so far as its industrial activities are concerned, exceeds all that I have ever imagined." This is a , great and wholesome result, and nothing but good can follow from, the . future \ operation of this sounder knowledge in ! the newspaper offices of the Empire. ' ;