IMPERIAL DEFENCE

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 30

IMPERIAL DEFENCE

SPEECH BY SIR J. G. WAED. LONDON, August 7. The Imperial Co-operation Leagu entertained Sir J. G. Ward at luncheoi The guestfe included Lady Ward, Lor Hampden, Rear-admiral Ottley, Sir Sant ford Fleming. Dr Fitchett, Admiral Fr< mantle, Mr John Cathcart Wason, M.P Mr P. Kennedy, Mr Arthur Myers (ci Mayor of Auckland). Lord Onslow, presiding, remarked tha the present conference was a great mil* stone on the road to the federation c the Empire. New Zealand's spontaneou offer of Dreadnoughts was a splendid in: pulse towards the maintenance of th continuity of Imperial Conferences. Lor Onslow, after emphasising New Zealand 1 action in placing Imperial preference i: the forefront of- her. aspirations, con eluded by hoping that Sir Joseph Wan would continue* to give the lead . to th Empire, so that that Empire might b united in one common system of defence Sir Joseph Ward, in responding, sail that he understood that the main put pose of the league was to help people t think Imperially. — (Cheers.) Intelligen thought easily passed into action, an< as soon as the bulk of the Empire though together, it would act together on grea Imperial questions, the true consolida tion and bafety of the Empire bein; thereby assured. — (Cheers.) The Empir< was so vast and so diverse in condition; and interests that the co-ordination anc consolidation problem would tax th< wisest heads. Take defence, which wa: the foundation whereon the whole Im perial superstructure must rest. It was stated on one hand that there was free dom, absolutely unfettered. A systeir of central control would enable th< whole of the forces of the Empire to be directed from one point in a case oi necessity. It was stated, on the othei hand, that the oversea dominions would not be justified in leaving themselves locally helpless, and that they would dc better in relieving the Motherland of all or much, of the burden of local defence, each dominion controlling its own unit. These were two apparently conflicting views, and they offered a problem that j was worthy of every effort that was being made by statesmen in all parts* of the Empire in an endeavour to solve it. He could not be expected to express an : opinion or enter into details concerning the problem of reconciling these views while the Naval Conference was sitting. He could, however, say that all present were animated by an earnest desire tc help forward the great v/ork of strengthening the Empire. Our defence, though i undoubtedly the greatest, was not the j only Imperial matter wherein the interests jof the Motherland and the oversea dominions were not identical. As an instance of thi& he referred to shipping, j regarding which he remarked that the existence of conflicting interests had been recognised, and an earnest effort had bean made to remove or reconcile these by means of a conference. He believed in conferences. Days spent in honest, earnest talk at a table often accomplished more than years of memorandum printing. Isolated and intermittent conferences were makeshifts at best. In his judgment some scheme of continuity must be devised or must be evolved. Personally he had unlimited faith in the capacity of that remarkable fiument called the British Constitution, which was not one incomprehensible, but many incomprehensibles, born nobody precisely knew when or how, and consisting of what no man precisely knew. Referring to the league's work, should they send representatives to New Zealand he would heartily welcome them, and New Zealanders would do their utmost to mok* them feel that they were in a British country and as much at home as here. Sir Joseph Ward did not believe that there was any decadence in England. Visitors who saw Portsmouth and those splendid Wnes of battleships with 60,000 •seamen ready to strike for King and country recognised that at heart the nation was true, and had one desire — namely — to elevate Old England to a still higher piano | and remove any aecertainable cause that I suggested expressions of decadence in the minds of some portions of the community. Ha proceeded to emphasise the desirability of improved cable communication in the ■direction of olitiapneps without doing any injury to the owners of private cables in order to bring into close touch . the people in all parts of the Empire. It was a great cause to work for, and he I would glpdly do anything in his power , to help those engaged in what he regarded as a great Empire movement. — ,(( peers.) He appreciated Lord Onslow's 1 kindly allusion to New Zealand's offer of ,i Dread nought. He claimed no ' n-C'rtit for doing what he considered was I his duty. Apart from the intrinsic worth I of the Dreadnought, the moral effect was incomparably greater. It was by co-opc-iation in this and other directions that v. c could do so much to, figuratively — ■ : indeed, literally, — bring the oversea I dominions closer and into real touch with | the Motherland. He had great faith in the capacity of a British Constitution to ad-iot itself to changes which must come , if the nation was to abide as one great whole, instead of splitting off into fragments. In that day the oversea dominions would not be dependencies. 'Hiey would be co-partners in a mighty N Jmpire, havina. with Britain behind the

[ burden of defenoe, the privilege and? ! responsibility of government. — (Cheers,)