IMPERIAL CONSOLIDATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 99, 17 October 1911, Page 5

IMPERIAL CONSOLIDATION.

AUSTRALIAN AIMS AND AMBITIONS. LORD DUDLEY INTERVIEWED. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. London, October 15. Lord and Lady Dudley were welcomed at Kidderminster. Lord Dudley declared that there was a great and growing feeling in Australia that Australians should be partners in a Council of the Empire. They desired to be regarded as a distinct branch of the British race, enjoying largely all the privileges of national life and qualified to be considered important and responsible in the federaev of self-governing States under the aegis of the Crown. "We arc reaching," lie said, " a eriti-' cal stage in the Imperial history, and any attempt to check the national development of the dominions or to deal captiously or carpingly would alienate our oversea kinsmen. We must allow them to develop on their own lines, use patitmce, and take confidence. Imperial consolidation will be enormously difficult and complex. The standpoints of Britain and the dominions vary, but an interchange of views on all problems will enable a mutual understanding." He added that the Empire's existence as a first-class Power depended on the success of binding all its parts together.