THE EMPIRE'S DEFENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 166, 7 August 1909, Page 2

THE EMPIRE'S DEFENCE.

THE COLONIES' OBLIC-ATION'3. THE STRONGEST TIE. NOT Of BLOOD BIT IU..VOK. By Cable—Pre«s Association.—Cop., rijn. Received 0, 1U p.m. -Loudon, Au-u>. «, At the L'uiteU Service Club u<Uuor, Sir i\ Borden, Canadian Minister 1./ i Ahsfence, MiiU a. lew jeurs ago the cajldiuu forces were u Uisorgaiiised niub. Wiey could now put 011,000 wen into tbo Held and another 6u,000 in u few weeks. Canada was going lo do her duty by the Navy,, for which she wan at once ocginulug to lay the luuadalion. In ease of trouble she would join in helping to maintain the Empire, and would give all the money Wey could gel aim help with men to man the lleet.

Colonel Koxt<4l (Australian delegate to the Defence Conference) said the great bulk of electors of Austral a had come round to the view that t it - real defence of Australia would not ,„e in their waters but that the crucial test might liave to be fought many thousand miles away from their shores. Australia was prepared to fall into line >\ith any suggestion which inigiu be made by the Imperial authorities. They hoped to maintain a standard which would bear fair comparison with the standard of the British Navy, so that when the time came for their union of ships they might be found capable of taking a fair share of the burdens which might be thrown upon Australia as an integral portion of the Empire. They in Australia claimed that blood was thicker than water, and realised that the Empire consisted of "one people, one Hag, and that there was one destiny for them all." General Smuts (South African delegate to the Conference) said it was true that blood was thicker than water, yet, in another dense, there wae something that was thicker than blood. The tie of honor was even greater and stronger, lie hoped as time went on, it would be more and more realised that it was not it tie of blood which held I'.iein together, but a tie of community of interests, of justice, of fair play and equality. When they saw the wonderful naval display at Spithead they did not forget that in the last resort it «as not machinery or honor or cold steel which told in a struggle, but nerve.

THE CONFERENCE'S DELIBERATIONS.

London, August 5. ; The Imperial Defence Conference to' day discussed the naval phase of Imperial defence.