IMPERIAL FEDERATION

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 929, 30 June 1903, Page 1

IMPERIAL FEDERATION

The Premier has forwarded us a letter received recently by him from Mr Arthur H. Loving, bou. secretary of the imperial Federation (Dofeuco) Committee, of London, dated 1-lth May, as follows : “ Tho Imperial Federation (Defence) Committeo has observed with much satisfaction the admirable speech delivered by you in March last, in which you pointed out to your countrymen, with that combination of patriotism and political foresight that bos always characterised your utterances, that the burden of Imperial responsibilities at present resting upon the Mother Country was becoming very heavy, and that as the dangers to the commerce, trade, and manufactures of the Empire increased, it wouid become all the greater. “ The Committee joins with you in the regret which you then expressed that a wider publication of the report of the Conference of Premiers has not been carried out by the Governments of the Empire, ai)d it has instructed me to forward to you 250 copies of its pamphlet No. 19, containing extracts from these speeches mado at the Conference which tends to emphasize the fact to which you so wisely and patriotically call attention. “ My Committee trusts that you may be able, by the distribution of these papers in New Zealand, to spread that knowledge of the needs of the Empire—for the due maintenance of its dignity and for the security of its people and their interests—which you have endeavored to bring home to your hearers in all parts of tho Empire. 11 My Committee also hopes that these publications may serve to show the people of New Zealand how earnest is the desire of both the people and the rulers of the United Kingdom to secure their actual co-operation in the work of maintaining and administering the Empire to which they all belong.”