The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1907. A CANADIAN IMPERIALIST.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2160, 16 August 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1907. A CANADIAN IMPERIALIST.

Dr. Leacock, the brilliant Canadian I professor, who is at present on a visit I to Now Zealand, in a speech delivered I in Wellington on AVcdnesday night, touched upon the weakest spot in the I recent Imperial Conference when ho pointed out that it was representative only of party Government. l'lio Colonial delegates represented fairly well the views of their respective countries, though the addition of Opposition representatives would most certainly have made the representation more complete. But when the visitors arrived in London and embarked upon the preliminaries for the Conference they found themselves confronted by marked apathy—to use a charitable term—on the part of the British Government. As a matter of fact Sir Henry Campbell Baiincrnian and his colleagues, bolding their positions as Free-traders, were distinctly loth to become embroiled in the discussion of a Conference in which Protection, under various guises, would almost certainly bo warmly adj vocated. It was only after the English press had remonstrated against the possibility of discourtesy being shown to the Colonial representatives that the Government tardily gave to the Conference the formal recognition which its importance demanded and arranged for Lord Elgin to preside. Throughout the proceedings the visitors in congress had to contend against the disinclination of the EngI lish representatives to take any step that might imperil the statu quo of the political situation, and any motion attempting to remedy the fossilised methods of the Colonial Office had to be presented in the mildest of forms. The Conference was in every sense a notable one, and performed I some useful work—chiefly in the diI rect-ion of ventilating the aspirations lof what Professor Leacock neatly I terms “The Outer Empire”—but had the element of party politics been relegated to the background the bene--1 ficial results would bavo been infiniI tely greater. Even more noteworthy were the I Professor’s remarks upon the position we, in common with Canada and other portions of the Empire, occupy I from the point of view of defence. I He is evidently an Imperialist in the I broadest sense and as such deplores I any tendency that may imperil the I future of the greatest Empire of I modern times. As our visitor points out it is not reasonable to expect that Britain will for all time rule the seas as completely as was the case when Trafalgar was won, and every year makes it more and more difficult to retain the two-Power standard which has been recognised as necessary to her supremacy of the sea. In

other words tlie colonies anil dominions must not be content to permanently rely upon tho might of tlie Mother Country to defend them in any emergency and under all possible conditions. Canada, like ourselves, must be satisfied to assist financially towards the support of tlie British navy anil at the same time lay the foundation for a new nation that will in the future be able to defend itself.