THE EMPIRE LEAGUE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 17, 21 January 1924, Page 3

THE EMPIRE LEAGUE

TRIBUTES TO MR. MASSEY

"A REAL ENCOURAGEMENT"

EARL BALFOUR AND SINGAPORE

BASE.

(PROM OUR OWH CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON, 15th November.

Members of the British Empire League entertained Mr. Massey at the British Empire Club this week.. The Duke of Devonshire (president of the league) was in the chair, and the Earl of Balfour was one of the guests. Among the hundred other guests present were Lord Southborough, Lord Blyth, Lord Inchcape, the Bishop of Llandaff,- Lord Sydenham, Lord Denman, Sir Joseph Cook, Sir Edgar Walton, Colonel the Hon. W. E. Collins, and Mr. M. B. Barnett.

In proposing Mr. Massey's health, the Duke of Devonshire said they were met together for the purpose of honouring a distinguished.statesman, whom they had come to look upon as the Father of' the .Conference. This was the fifth Conference he had attended. Mr. Massey had shown very great sacrifice in leaving his country for four months. He came not with the purpose of asking for anything. It was not to ask for any privilege or favours, but for the one purpose of adding his contribution to the solution of the many problems with which the Empire was faced. That lie should come all this distance and give up all this time showed there was something worth his while to come for. He hoped that when Mr. Massey returned to his own Dominion he would not regard, the time and trouble he had expended in attending the Conference as having been wasted. A great deal of valuable work had been accomplished. That work had been actuated by one common motive—to make the British Empire as we knew it today not.only a great factor in times of war, but a great factor in the preservation of the peace of the world. Mr. Massey had in this Conference, as he ha-d on many previous occasions, made valuable contributions towards the solutions of the many problems that had to be considered. There was one thing that had impressed itself upon the minds of those attending the Conference: the robust, ■ vigorous, and enthusiastic support which Mr. Massey invariably gave to every British undertaking. He had been a real help and a real encouragement to them ail, and if his example and his influence could —as he hoped and believed it could—make itself felt, in spite of the various difficulties they had to contend with, they could }ook forward to a solution of them. It was only right that they should not merely render a debt of gratitude to Mr. Massey, but that they should express the confident anticipation that when he returned to his own Dominion he would be able still, further to promote that policy which had been his life work. WELL WORTH DOING. Mr. Massey said the results of the Conferences remained .to be seen. All that he could say at present was that he believed that the work that had been done was well worth doing. He thought it was quite certain, whether as a result of these Conferences or not, or as a result of the war, that British people generally were beginning to realise now the importance of the Empire to which they belonged, though it had to be admitted yet that there were very few who had grasped the details regarding the ares,, the population,, the influence, and .the good which the British Empire had done to humanity. The Prince of Wales had referred to the importance of travel so as to get an idea of the potentialities of the British Empire. That was quite right, but the difficulty was that there was only a small proportion of people whose finances would permit them to travel and see much of. the Empire. Most people had to depend on others whose business it was to travel and communicate later their ideas to the public, such as journalists, school teachers, commercial men, and, should he say, Ministers of the Crown? In speaking of the latter he was not speaking in any fault-finding sense, but British Ministers did not travel as often as they ought to do. Judging by what had taken place recentl}', it would seem that they did not travel until they ceased to be Ministers. He was pleased also to notice that the British people had been. waking up to the necessity of defence. He found no fault with organisations formed for the purposes of promoting peace; but not one of these organisations could prevent war if a nation had its mind set upon the final arbitrament in that way. The Washington Conference, good as it was —and he thoroughly believed in it—had brought about a better feeling between Britain and America than probably ever existed before.. He woud like to see the English-speaking countries of the world joined for the purpose of preventing war. They could do more in that wav than any other organisation of which he could think. He was afraid that time was not yet. They had been discussing Singapore inside and outside the Con ference room, and, so far as he was able to judge, the fortification of Singapore would be proceeded with. There had been the usual controversy, but opinions which were worth having had been nearly all in favour of the proposal. He was not anxious for a standing Army or a greater Navy than were required, but he insisted there should be sufficient in the event of trouble taking place. The cost of defence was a national insurance which must be met, and this applied to the Air Force as well as to the Army and the Navy. TIME TO REPENT. Concluding, Mr. Massey said that the question at issue at the present time was as between Free Trade and Preference or Protection. He was for Preference. He knew what Free Trade ought to be. Free Trade in this country, so far as he understood it, was that Britain should open her ports to foreign countries and charge no duties thereon, but that British goods going to foreign countries should have a tariff wall against them which made it almost impossible for them to find a market. That was not in the interests of Britain. The present policy was undoubtedly to Britain's detriment, and had outlived its usefulness. When he came into politics he was a pronourv;ed Free Trader, but, unlike some others, he had seen the error of his ways. He would like to see the others admit the error of their ways and repent. Free Trade was a great slogan, bat it was not free trade in the ordinary sense of the word, but free imports. THE SINGAPORE BASE. The Earl of Balfour, who was received with prolonged cheers, proposed the health of the chairman. He had worked with Mr. Massey, he said, in difficult circumstances, and in times of a kind which the world had never seen before, and which he earnestly trusted the world would never see again. And those who had worked together in those anxious years felt mutually bound by feelings of affection and regard which ordinary coila&oration under ordinary circumstances could hardly produce He had hoard it suggested .that m fortifying Siogaporg w«

were rather trespassing on the' principle of the Washington Conference and taking a somewhat mean advantage-of a technical point, of which neither the American nor the Japanese Governments —the two great Pacific Powers—wera aware. A more grotesque view could not be entertained. Singapore was deliberately omitted from the Pacific arrangements in order that we might deal with it exactly as we liked. We were bound and we were limited as regards Hong Kong, one of the greatest ports of the world, and we were precluded by the Washington Conference from adding to the existing fortifications aginst imaginary naval attacks. Singapore was. deliberately left out, and the people who suggested it was a mistake, and - that neither the American nor the Japanese sailors knew quite where the line of longitude passed which put Singapore outside. instead of inside the Pacific, were really talking grotesque nonsense. Lines of longitude were not matters of random chance. They were not. subjects about which sailors differed or disputed. They were absolutely precise, absolutely determinate; and if Singapore happened to lie west of that line with regard to which the Washington Conference operated that was—if anything ever was—a line of deliberate policy. Mr. Massey, added Lord Balfour, represented a Dominion where the'flame of Imperial patriotism glowed with purest conceivable iP-7\ I* % re wens any part of-the British impire which was from top to bottom purely British in sentiment;, aspirations, m its estimate of the:-past and outlook for, the future, Mr. Massey could truly boast that he need yield to no Minister, at Home or overseas, in the fervour of patriotism with which he and those he represented regarded tho great Imperial questions in which wo were all interested.