A DERRY WELCOME

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 16, 19 January 1924, Page 13

A DERRY WELCOME

MR. MASSEY IN IRELAND

HIS SPEECH AT BELFAST

PATRipTISM NOT PARTY.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPOHDENT.)

LONDONDERRY, 2nd December.

On his visit to Northern Ireland, Mr. Massey has been heartily welcomed everywhere, and nowhere more heartily than in his native county !of Derry. The Prime Minister's party left. Belffst yesterday and had a pleasant, run to Londonderry. As we came to Limavady Junction, the Premier/began to pick up old-" landmarks rememberedV over fifty years. We passed beside^the channel ■where the boom was thrown across In the historic siege of Derry, and so on to the little town. Before the official lunch, some of the party had time to visit the Town Hall and examine the Royal Char : ter given to the burghers by Charles 11. in 1663. It is a remarkable document; written by hand and. illuminated ,in colours. The Latin text covers about twenty pa<ges some four feet by three feet each in size. Truly, they^'did .things thoroughly }n those early days. Then there were minute books of the town council of 1673 to 1686, and 1688 to -.04. It was evident there is practicably no between the method of^ keep-' ing minute books in those days arid the method "now employed. Among the treasures, tooj were ihe mace of. William of Orange, the sword of Sir Cahir O'Doherty, who tried to sack the town in Elizabethan times, and the Perara .sword belonging to the original. ■• city council. .' ■ 1;.., '.' : ■•• .In Londonderry, Mr. Massey -was en-: tertaiiied by Mr. T/ F. Cooke, H.M. Lieutenant lor Londonderry at the Melville Hotel. Some fifty or sixty of the principal citizens were present to do honour to the Freeman of their city. In the course of ,his reply to the toast of his health, Mr. Massey said he had to divide his affection between the land pf his birth and the land of his adoption, and he was really not quite sure which made the ..greater call. The people, of New Zealand knew, exactly what'his feelings were with regard to Ulster, and the people pf Ulster knew what his feelings were with regard to New. Zealand. The Dominion to him ■was not a foreign shore,1 but they could; hardly imagine the pleasure it was to him to come back to the land of his birth and meet the people again. Mr. Massey continued to speak for little short of an hour. Ulster, he said, had in the past, a good effect on the Government ...of Britain, and he believed .the fact that Ulster had.decided to send representatives to the British Parliament, would have a good effect again. He was not reflecting on the Government of Southern Ireland. He would like to think that in years to come there would be peace and friendship; between the different'countries 6f the Empire, and he included in that, of course, Southern. Ireland. He did not like the way the present General Election -was being conducted. Personally, he thought they ought to rise above these little local party squabbles, and they ought to think not only of the particular part.of the..Empire in which they resided,; but they ought to think of'the Empire as a whole. Apparently, they had not. reached that stage when the whole of. the people of Britain were able to. look at matters ' from the Empire point, of yiew. ..,■;.'. ... AT LIMAVADY. i '"■ ' ' -Jri the afternoon Mr: Massey and three others of his party motored the sixteen miles between Londonderry—or Derry, as it is invariably called by the\ citizens—and the home of his boyhood, Limavady. As he neared the little inland town he picked out the house where his uncle had^ived for fifty years. Prompt to time, the motor-car took rise on the , near/side of-the town. The first building is the War Memorial Institute, and , here the people, had congregated to welcome their distinguished fellow-towns-man. 'Mr. Massey had the privilege ot meeting aagm his. cousin, Miss Ferguson, the only relative who remains in Limavady, After tea, Mr. Robert Douglas, J.P., expressed the pleasure the people of Limavady had ih seeing the Premier again. They had followed his career with pride. Mr. John Mark, M.f. for the- district, said Mr. Massey's career was an object "lesson in Imperialism and loyalty. Mr. Massey's speech, in reply, conveyed to his hosts something ot the emotion and pleasure he had in revisiting the home of his birth ahd childhood. ; SERVICE AT THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH., On Sunday the Premier motored out again to Limavady in time to attend the service at the Second Presbyterian Church. Except for ' a new organ,' the littie .ch Ul . c h has changed not at all since Mr, Massey and his people sat in pew seventeen. ■ There was the waterspout, up which. the boy of fifteen scrambled to.deposit a penny under the eaves <of the church. It must have been a perilous climb.. The visiting party on this occasion sat in the back seat with Miss lerguson the Premier's cousin. -After the National .Anthem had been sung, Mr. Macready drew attention to the fact that they had with them a/great Imperialist, a man who loved his-country and the Empire, and Who had devoted his services to His Majesty' the King.- -He had now com*- back to his own people iaden with honours, burdened with great responsibilities. They had in him a living testimony that a man mi^ht make of himself a great builder, a great watchman. ULSTER HALL MEETING. In Belfast the first of the entertainments in. honour of New Zealand's Prime Minister was the luncheon in. the historic Ulster Hall, in which epoch-making meetings have been held for many years The hosts were the Belfast Chamber ofCommerce. .-.. . "THE, BIG IMPERIALISTIC ULSTERMAN." . • The chairman (Sir W. F. Coates) submitted the toast of "The Prime Minister and jGovernment of New Zealand." He •extended a cordial welcome to the Prime Minister and to all the New Zealand visitors. Mr. Massey, he said, was a son_pf- Ulster, of whom Ulster was justly proud. (Applause.) His whole career reflected gloiy on the place of his birth. He was one of the many truly great men contributed by Northern Ireland to the service of the State.and the Empire, whosename would live'in history. (Applause. Not inappropriately, Mr. Massey had been described as the John Bull of Greater Britain. They preferred to regard him as the big Imperialistic Ulster•man > to whose robust, practical energy and unswerving devotion to duty, the" Dominion of New Zealand, the British Empire, and the Allies were vastly and permanently indebted. MORE PATRIOTISM-LESS PARTY. In his reply Mr. Massey touched O n the political situation here. "I am not going k> refer to : party politics," he eaui. for T have as much as I want m Aew Zealand, but I will Ea y this I

would like to see in the elections in Great 'Britain a little more patriotism and a • little less party. It would be better for everyone of us, better for the Empire."- The Premeir then went on to review.-the post-war commercial conditions. Many people said that if they could but settle the difficulties in Europe prosperity would return to Britain, and unemployment would cease. He was not so sure of that, though they should all , like to see the trouble between France and Germany brought to a .satisfactory conclusion. What he was thinking of. was that at one time Great Britain, if- not the workshop1 of the world, was one of the principal work-' shops. Its manufacturers were sent into almost every country; but a change had taken place, and now almost every country was producing its own manufactured goods, and not only doing that, but many of them were taking advanrrS j?/ "llat was ca'led Britain "Free Irade 'policy, and sending their goods into British ports. That, he believed, was one of the principal causes of unemployment. ■ . DEVELOPMENT IN THE DOMINIONS.In order to meet that, .to a certain extent, the British Government wag arranging that for the overseas countries which require development money would be advancod for five years at low rateß or interest on the business understanding that that money was expended in purchasing commodities manufactured in British workshops. .That .advantasfi would be taken of1 that proposal he did not doubt. His own country of Now /.eaiand has entered upon important rlovelopments in the way of generating hydro electricity, building up-to-date roads, and completing railways already in course of construction. Only a few week? a^o his colleague, the Minister of public Works, telegraphed to him W he would require within the near future four millions pounds'^ worth of metal ! manufactures, and that he; hoped to place the. orders in Great Britain. He had no doubt that other Dominions would be able to do something in the same way. In 1913—the year before tho war—New Zealand purchased in British markets ten million pounds' worth of goods. For the first' six pionths of thf> present year they purchased over ten million pounds' worth. . In 1913 their exports were 23 millions, while for tlw last year they were 47 millions. Hp could not say if other Dominions ,had •advanced in the same proportion, but they were all making progress. Mr. Massey then gave his opinions with regard to Free Trade and Protection It was a case of free imports on the one side, not Free Trade', for that was not irree Trade; free imports on Britain's side, and Protection on the part of other countries. He had no hesitation in saying that.it was a system which ■"was detrimental to the interests of Britain and British people, and he thought1 it had a great deal to do with the unemployment from which Britain was suffering at the present time. ULSTERMAN IN THE DOMINION. ? e .j' M very Slad to notice that Ulster had adhered to its representation in the British I arhament. He would be glad to1 see the Prime Minister of Ulster at the Imperial. Conference, but he could not help thinking- that the British Parliament would be none the worse, but on the'contrary a great deal better, for tho expression of patriotism and .practical, politics from the Ulster members. He was1 happy to say that they had many representatives.' of Northern • Ireiand in New Zealand, men who were quite competent to hold their own in agriculture,'in Commerce,'in nuance, and in public life. . ' . : So far as he had . been able to read and see for himself, the outlook for Ulster wa s good.. He had heard them were likely to be important developments in connection with minerals.' and that the necessary arrangements were already made. In regard-to agriculture he had been reading about what was expected, from the new variety of flax seed which would presently be distributed. If that led. to a heavier yield than had been the casein the past then it would be a splendid thing, not only, for the farmers, but-for every class of the community. (Hear, hear.) When the .representatives of the Oyerseas Dottamel ame °\ er here from alraost «)e unn S B v°r! th t e- Elr^' *he thou^t that was uppeimost in his mind was that, as public men and private citizens,.they held this great Empire in trust for those coming a ter them. They were practi ft^k™^ fO/ future generations, and In A " duty ™d * their business £™VI "Tr tO lGaVe H better than they found it to pass it on intact and to make such arragements that it would1 for I"creas".l S usefulness, not only for its own citizens but for the whole universe. (Applause.) ° SEA POWER. If the, Empire was to keep tosetlier as they earnestly hoped it would? tl ey must be ready to defend it. Here a-ain they had to recollect that Britain was a sea-power built,on sea-power,'and maintained by sea-power. The sea was' their national highway, and if i n future an enemy was able to cut~-the communications^ between-the different parts JJt Em Plr«'.P ai't]^l^'ly hetween the var ous countries of. the Empire and SraneJ Tf thf\ the EmP^° came to an end. Though he was glad to' think there was no prospect of war-in the near future, still there had been v«rv dangerous periods even since the Armist.ce was agreed to in 1918. When p'-ace was proclaimed it was quite right to demobil.se .the Army, to" reduce Z. Navy and A,r Force, but it was possible to overdo these thinss, and he was afnud at one time that the Empi4 w"s Wing to be_ left without sufficient'Tfence, especially as. far' as naval defence was. concerned. However, he had recently an ■ opportunity; of witnessing the great naval review at Portsmouth of fifteen miles of ships, all up to date I>p cause not one of them was comnletort before 1914 manned, by sailoT^ h fewer in number than during the war but quite competent to defend their,Em essar 1" time °f tr°Ub'e " H became' nefiBRITAIN AND'1 AMERICA, ih^°% WaS "° Sign or in(Hcation yet vW™ 6y weve J aPProaching'the tiino when men would beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks and -learn the art of war it^Tn That £ me Was not yet- That t would-come he was convinced, and hey would be a great deal nearer to it L'% rt they, -Were able t0 induce the English-speaking peoples, Britain ad America, to stand together for one purpose and one purpose only, and that was to say to nations who.were inclined to draw the sword, that disputes between nations must be referred to and settled by an international court of arbitration. _ In the meanwhile, it was their obvious.duty to provide and have ready a sufficient naval defence in the event of its being required. He looked upon New Zealand and Northern Ireland as two countries in some respects very-much alike; similar in their characteristics and actuated by the same patriotic spirit oMoyaly to the Crown and love and admiration for the Empire which their ancestors built up. and of which they were citizens and trustee to-day.1 Their duty was to go on do-' ing- the work which their hands found to do, doing it williriply and quietly, but firmly. (Applause.)