A PATRIOTIC CARDINAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 387, 21 May 1908, Page 3

A PATRIOTIC CARDINAL.

Advice to Hibernians. Sydney, May 18. Speaking at a Hibernian Society breakfast, Cardinal Moran, said 23 years ago he ventured the opinion that no one but a fool could be disloyal in Australia. He was conscious at the present time that the statement held good to-day. He would even go further, and say: “If we had some fools in Australia, even they iu their dreams would not be guilty of disloyalty. The reason is that we have the most perfect freed on citizens could aspire to. There are some people in Home Countries who cannot realise or understand what Australian interests mean.” His idea was that Canada and Australia were wings of the Empire. When soaring into the highest flights the strength of the eigle was in its wings. If they desired that the eagle of Empire would soar* aloft, they must strengthen the wings. If the wings were clipped the eagle would fall to the ground. If they were true to the Empire they would do their utmost to develop the resources of Australia and make the wings of Canada and Australia as perfect as they could be made. If Australia dissociated herself from the Empire to-morrow, we should be having, perhaps, not a friendly visit troiu the American fleet, but one irom some other fleet, which would spread ruin and desolation through the land. He was sure every Hibernian present would, with other Australia citizens, do all he could to strengthen the position of Australia.

Cardinal Moran’s remarks are inspired by Cardinal Bogue’s statement iu New York that “Australia to-day is practically idepeudeut,and the trend of every movement is more and morejn the direction of absolute rebellion !”