Matters of Empire.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 314, 30 May 1911, Page 5

Matters of Empire.

NEW ZEALAND'S IMPERIALISM. DR. FINDLAY "KITE-FLYING." By Cable—Press Association—Copyright London, May 28. Dr. Findlay, speaking at Whitfield's Tabernacle, said that New Zealanders were ready to a man to make a sacrifice for the Empire, and the growing sense of Imperialism was even keener than in Britain. New Zealanders were prepared to work to this end and were looking • forward to the day when great statesmen would take the elements of federation and mould them into something i like an organic whole. What was happening at the Imperial Conference showed that New Zealand was anxious to : make sacrifices for closer union.

SPEECHES AT THE EIGHTY CLUB. AUSTRALIA'S INTENTIONS. London, May 28. At the Eighty Club luncheon Mr. 'Fisher said that the more Australia was •allowed to manage her own affaifs in every department of government and 'life, the more attached did the people become to the Mother Country and the "British Crown, it was - freedom that made for safety.

Tleferring to Mr. Lloyd-George's referiences- to the dominions' social legislation, he declared that Australians had not ended their experiments if some of them coUM help it They were, indeed, only beginning, because they regarded cconomic ideals as quite as sacred as political liberty. Britain's system of overseas government would'not end with the present flominions. Foreign statesmen were deeply interested therein, and one recently declared that he looked forward to the British system encircling other nations who desired a federation of the people <ff the world. This was something to be proud of. Mr. Botha, speaking in Dutch, regretted that Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman had not 'liyed to see the fruits of his South African policy.

LOOKING AFTER NO. 1. THE "WAY OF COLONIALS. London, May 28. The Economist says that the project of an 'lmperial defence fund controlled I>y Imperial representatives is dissolving in the light of facts and criticisms, as Sir Wilfrid Laurier refuses to allow Canada to be drawn into the vortex of European militarism, Admiral Henderson's report is causing trouble in Aus--tralia, while South Africa is glad to receive a dole of a million per year for the support of the British garrison. The tendency of the large colonies is to regard the British Navy with complacency, and for tbe dominions to allow Britain to pile up armaments as she pleases, while taking care that any small colonial contributions are spent locally. FURTHER FESTIVITIES. Received 29, 9.30 p.m. London, May 29.

The Premiers and other Australian and New Zealand visitors, High Commissioners and Agents-General, attended Mr. L. Harcourt's King's Birthday banquet I at the Colonial Office, and afterwards ■were present at Lady Granard's reception at Forbes House, which presented a brilliant scene. The gathering included Ambassadors, Cabinet Ministers and members of the House of Commons. COLONIAL PREMIERS INTERVIEWED Received 29, 9,30 p.m. London, May 29. General Botha, interviewed, said he was profoundly impressed at the cotffldence shown by the Imperial Government in freely revealing its foreign policy. "For the first time," he continued, "we realise the questions occupying the attention of the Home Government and the extent that they influence the dominions. The Conference .has commenced under the happiest auspices, and in a manner best calculated to cement the bonds of Empire." Mr. Fisher, interviewed, said: "The Government of the United Kingdom is to be congratulated on the way it has takeji the dominions' representatives into its confidence. The step marks a new era in the development of the Empire. Once taken this step cannot be retraced."

SIR WILFRID LAURIER AT HIS BEST.

Just More he left for England to attend the Imperial Conference, Sir Wilfrid Laurier concluded a brilliant speech in the Canadian House of Commons on the agreement with the United States, as follows:—"If my poor voice could be heard throughout the United States as follows:—"If my poor voice out any presumption it could be heard also beyond the frontier, I would say to our American neighbors, flattering as may be to their pride the idea that the territory of the Republic should extend over the whole continent, from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the waters of the Arctic Ocean, remember that we Canadians were born under the same flag as were your ancestors, a flag under which, perhaps, you may have suffered some oppression, but which to us has been and is more than ever the emblem/Of freedom, (Great cheering). HememHer that if you have founded a nation upon separation from the Mother Land, we Canadians have set our hearts upon building up a nation without sen-1 aration, and in this task we are already far advanced with our institutions, with our national entity as a people, and with everything that constitutes a nation to whom we are just as devoted as you are to yours. (Cheers). Remember that the blood which flows in our veins is just as good as your own, and that if you are a proud people, though we are not of your numbers we are just as proud as you are, and that rather than part with our national existence we would part with our lives. (Renewed cheering). If my voice could be heard that far, I would presume to say to our American friends, there may be a spectacle perhaps nobler yet than the spectacle of a united continent, a spectacle which would astound the world by its novel tv

and granftehr, thi"' spectacle of two peoples Irving''side by side for a distance of 4000 miles,- a line which is hardly visible in many quarters, with not a cannon, not a •gnu frowning across it. with not a fortress on either side, with no arm: 1 went'one against the other, but living in harmonv, in mutual confidence, and with no other rivalry than generous emulation in commerce and the arts of peace. (Great Liberal cheers). To the Canadian people I would say thnt if it is possMe for us to obtain such relations between these two ronng and {.'rowing nations, Canada would have rendered to Old' England, the mother of nations, nay, to the whole British Empire, a service unequalled in its present effect, and still more in its far-reaching consequences. (Prolonged Liberal cheering). 1 *