IMPERIAL UNITY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1417, 18 April 1912, Page 6

IMPERIAL UNITY.

THE OVERSEAS CLUB

SPEKCn BY THE GOVERXOIf,

til* TclccraDh—Press Associating

i _ Auckland, April 17. The part of the .scattered British Do- : minions in increasing, and maintaining ; the unity of the Empire was strikingly dealt uith lu the (lovernor, when ho opened a branch of the Overseas Club in Auckland to-day. lie said that, although the Overseas Club movement was oniv 20 months old, it had met with such a popular reception that its future success was assured. _\ew Zealand and other Dominions wero growing into a real sci\<e«f nationality, and this had a deterrent ellej-l upon tho concentration of the interests oi the people upon the wider outside .subjects of the Imperial interests. It was said by some who were pessimistic t ', le Empire was so immense and diffused that it was almost bevond hope to keep it together indefinitely Vs an intact unity. This internal increase of nationalty was a matter that conid best be dealt with by such an organisation as the Overseas Club. There wa< an oldfashioned idea that a. distant Dominion could, during its years of development, enjoy privileges of fatherly shelter ami protection by the Old Country, and then, when it was able to walk and advance itself, could throw off that protection ami go independently. That view hail now practically been exploded. The Overseas Club could advance and strengthen the growing opinion that the Dominions could not do without tho strength and mutual cohesion of the Empire. (Applause.) New Zealand and the other countries could no longer look to Britain as their sure and sole means of security and protection, but neither could tliev, as individual units, look to themselves bv themselves as a body to be able to fight against the dangers that could bo foiind throughout the world. What the Dominions could do was by joining together, and by consolidation to present such a front to the world that the combination would be irresistible in its force, v and would be the greatest factor in the peace of the world. While the organisation of tho Empire presented many difficulties they were perhaps not so great as many might think. ith a certain amount of clear thinking on the part of the public they would see that an organic system of Empire was perfectly possible. The difficulties that were seen must be explained at every turn by the Overseas Club. Ho believed au organic Empire in the future was perfectly compatible with the freedom of the Dominions' autonomy throughout the Empire. They must rely to somo extent upon leading statesmen meeting in conference to come to certain decisions, but he believed that if they were to see an organic Empire it would be brought about on much more solid foundations as the result of public education through the whole question being thrashed out by the democracies, which would come to a final decision by themselves., However skilled or eminent a conference of statesmen might be, its decision would not, be of any real arid lasting good if those making it wero allowed to go very far ahead of tho public education. Peopio must be brought up very close in knowledge to the decisions to be made. There again, the Overseas Club could do incalculable good.