MR FISHER AND MR STEAD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 70, 13 September 1911, Page 8

MR FISHER AND MR STEAD

THE CELEBRATED INTERVIEW.

i Following is the text of the celebrated J interview, taken from the July number . of the British Review of Reviews:— (

Among the many remarkable men who have been amongst us in London this year Mr, A. Fisher, Prime Minister of Australia, is one of the most notable. After Sir Wilfrid Laurier he has been the most conspicuous figure at the Imperial Conference, and no one has done more than he to shape the destinies of the British Empire in an anti-Imperial, direction. Mr. Fisher is the first work-ing-man to attain the position of a Prime Minister as the head of a Labor Cabinet. A spaTC, alert figure, with a youthful look in his olosely shaven face which belies the iron-grey of his hair, Mr. Fisher is as simple and kindly and canny a Scot as lie was when he earned his daily bread as a miner in Kilmarnock. I liad an interesting talk with him on the subject of the future of the Empire.

"Don't talk to me of Empire," he said; "we are not an Empire. No end of mischief has come from the use of that word. We are a very loose association of five nations, each independent, each for the time being willing to remain in fraternal co-operative union with Great Britain and with each other, but only on condition that if at any time for any cause we decide to terminate that connection no one can say us nay." "No loss an authority on the other side than Mr. Joseph Chamberlain had said the same thing," I remarked. "But lie was always trying to convert you into an Empire, whereas your trend is in the opposite direction." • ''Certainly it is," replied Mr. Fisher. "We are independent, self-governing communities who are absolutely untrammelled by any laws, treaties or constitutions. We are free to take our own eourse, according to what. we believe to be our interests', without anyone bein<* able to prevent us. There is no nt° ccss'ity for us to say that we will or that we will not take part in any of England's wars. We recognise that in wise of war, from the point of international law, our territory would be subject or liable to attack by England's enemy. If we were threatened we should have to decide whether to defend ourselves, or, if we thought the war unjust and- that England's enemy was in the right, to haul down the Union Jack and hoist our own flag and start on our own. We don't expect to be attacked, and we do not contemplate a decollation of independence, because, except as a riddance of the risk of being England's foes, we could gain nothing if we were as independent as any other Sovereign State, and we might lose much."

I remarked that he had repeatedly spoken in favor of widening the Imperial Conference so as to include within its scope the United States of America. Quite true," he said, "and not merely the United States of America. I rcar'd this so-called Imperial Conference as a meeting in friendly council of the representatives of six independent nations which have agreed to regard war with each other as unthinkable as a civil war, and, therefore, are only interested in considering how they can best settle any disputes which may arise in the future, and how they can most effectively lend each other mutual aid in promoting the general welfare. I see no reason why the Conference should be limited to six nations, Tho American projiosal to draw up a general arbitration treaty shows that the United States has joined the fraternity of nations with whom war would be civil war. Any other nation that accepts tho American arbitration treaty would, to my thinking, enter into the comity of peaceful brother nations who ought to be represented in some such Conference as this."

Great idea;" I exclaimed. "What you want is a cross between the Imperial Conference and the Hague Conference to begin in serious earnest the founding of the world-state of the future, the cooperative fraternity of free nations." •Vou may call it what you like!" said the canny Scot; "all I wish to insist upon is that the time is ripe for associating sovereign independent nations together For purposes of mutual help and the maintenance of the general peace. The Hague Conference only concerns itself with arbitration of disputes and the regulation of war. The Imperial Con-' ference concerns itself little about those '"P- . starts from the assumption that war between the nations which it ; represents is unthinkable. Therefore it I is free to concentrate its attention upon practical measures for improving the'

material communications between its members, for establishing general princip es of law m matters common to all, and foi promoting everything that tends in W+l° r Wol ' ld bl,ttur Wol 'th living tions" Cil3 the associate d na , '3'! at re ™ inds me," I said, "that I brought you the last published report of the Bureau of American Repubthat- n} \v W !" S T' lf you read its pages, that at Washington they are trying to do for all American Republics what you say ought to be undertaken by a centra conference of all the nation.,* which ac cept the American arbitration treaty" Mr. 1.,.,1,er took the book and turned ? 't* P a S cs - '"Let them all come in'" he said. "The Peace Lea^e

V « 7 I , ' ej^t ." n reen 'it that abide: » Us central war and rau tual help m all the works of peace' Th brotherhood of nations is slowly gainin recognuion. What now needs' doin" i to seize the occasion offered by the com "!" of the English-speaking neo Sate o rt'he' l f !° Umla " ons of the world state of the future whose basis will b pence with justice and a diplomacy tha «'il seek to help an( l not to Sr th, tion.»'° 8,1 th ° ,ne,nbers of the federa "Bv-tlie-bye, Mr. Fisher," r exclaimed what do you think of the proposed cele bmtion i„ 11,14 „f the 'hundred Sr, 0 peace between Britain and America"' A capital idea," said the Australia) Pipmicr. and one which will find a warn welcome m Australia. The ties of Z pathy between our dominion and'th ; i TT„ hep ? Mh are vpry e!ose - Th ms l of the American Fleet did mucli and the opening of the Panama. Cana « II do more to draw Australians am Amencaiis together. Xowhere will th. in l,.££»' 0n be n,ol ' e P°P« lar tha, 3fr. Fisher was rather taken with th, idea of erecting a monument to Georm V\ a-shington in London, to be subscribe, f(ii by ithe school children of the Fm cot thai he i s , from committing himsel to| any formal acceptance of the idea »('h however, is appealing more an* 11 • 1 to I lie imagination of the English speaking peoples. 0 (SO o ' ,( 'sT'w!n ni ,'V aa i d > " MoTe y°> T, ' r . Lnurier carried n the Imperial Conference a resolution an pointing an Imperial Commission to en ln,to iUl<l report upon ~]] t i lat j '•'in? done, to develop the resources „ the wioii* dominions, to improve thei ra<l V" latl() » s -otc. Could you not fo] Joint',,, '"• W ' <Vo " <l rpinl "«H"i «P . J, ''"iniiiission to e,i(|iiire ml .n.d lepoit. upon ;l || measures laken f„ improving the condition of (lie people ", (> ; 0,1 '. v "''thill the dominions, bu 1 Inouii'lioui. (Ji,, wo]-],]?'' wo shall intcv|>ret the terms of Si*

Wilfrid Laurier's resolution lis covering the condition of the people question. All questions such as insurance against sickness and unemployment, old-age pensions, municipal trading, etU:., belong to the industrial problems referred to in Sir Wilfrid's resolution."

■"No one imagines that Sir Wilfrid's resolution has so tremendous a scope," said I; "probably least of all Sir Wilfrid himself. Had you not better make it known?"

Mr. Fisher replied: "Our security that our interpretation will prevail is the fact that we shall appoint our commissioners with instructions to in-tepret the resolution 111 that sense. Great tilings may come of it. Tiiat is the kind of fruitful co-operation in promotion of progress which will occupy the international activity of the members of the worldstate, as you call it, towards which Alankind is- drifting."

Here at least is a man, a responsible man, a man in the highest office in the Australian Commonwealth, who ia not afraid of ideas—who, indeed, glories in them and regards it as his chief object in life to realise them. If, according to our Jingoes, lie is dissolving the ancient Empire of Britain into a shadowy, unsubstantial fabric of vision, he is, in his own judgment, only levelling the antiquated rampart which civilisation has made an anachronism in order to afford space and room enough for the erection on its site of the more stately edifice of the great world-state in which brother nations associate in peace for mutual service.