SPIRIT OF EMPIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1921, Page 5

SPIRIT OF EMPIRE.

FAMILY OF NATIONS. HONOR TO NEW ZEALAND. THANKS FOR WAR SERVICE. Teietraph.-Preß A„n-Copnisht. Beceived July 24, 11.5 pm. , r , . , London, July 23. ..Jt f \ eedom 01 the «ty of Bath wa. the Maharajah of ditch, Mr. U . M. Hughes, and Mr. IV. F. MasSP ‘' j I . IC vor councillors welcomed the visitors at the railway station, and three little girls presented Mrs. Hughes and Mrs. Musaev and Miss Maaaey with bouquets. The visitors then wont in procession through gaily decorated streets to the grand pum*p room, where the freedom was conferred The guests included the Marquis of Bath and Viscount Ullswater (formerly the Speaker, Mr. Lowther). The Mayor, in conferring the freedom. said it gave him infinite pleasure io welcome the overseas representative, not only on account of the statesman’ chip they displayed during difficult years, hut also becauase they were the repn ' .tatives of a great nation beyu»u the seas. The freedom symbolised the fact that though wo were separated by of mires, vet we were all of one stock under one Empire Uid one Sovereign, with the same ideas, toliejes and hopes for the future. “We iesire to remember the heroism and self-sacrifice displayed by our distant rinsmen during the war,’ proceeded the Mayor. ’‘The time is long past when the colonies are regarded rather as a »urden than a bulwark of Empire. Mr. •Joyd George recently reminded us that :he Dominions’ forces turned the scale n the war and did their share in saving the world from Kaiserlsm.”

TRIBUTE TO MR. MASSEY. Addressing Mr. Hughes, the Mayor raid: “When we recall Anzac and Gallipoli wa may well ask whether anything is impossiible to such a nation after the great deeds those names recall, nor do we forget tha* an Australian ship destroyed the Emden. We also remember what you have done during your Premiership, not only in advancing your great Dominion, but in helping forward the great desire for a permanent peace throughout the world.’* Addressing Mr. Massey, the Mayor said: “New Zealanders, like their brother Australians, showed us the stuff they are made of during the war. It is difficult to express in a few words our appreciation of your servjses in cause of the Empire. You have always been a fighter, and it was largely due to your efforts that the people of the Dominion threw their weight into the war for freedom, and we are glad to show in a slight measure our thanks for what your people have done for us.” Mr. Hughes and Mr. Massey thanked : the city for the honor paid through th<m to their respective countries. Mr. i Massey highly euiogired Lord Jellicoe’s i services as Governor General. At a luncheon in the Gu’ldhall at • Bath, Mr. Frederic Harrison, the wellknown litterateur, proposed the health of the visitors. He said all who watched the incontestable events of this annus mirabilis knew that the present moment fraught with vast prob lems, whereon the peace ox the Kingdom and of the world depended. The occasion which brought into conference the Prime Ministers of the Domin’ons was in itself one of the moat remarkable crises in our time; it meant an entirely new re-organisation of the Empire. or rather eon-nlidation of the allied commonwealths under the Crown. As an old historian he remembered how vast and rapid was the progress wlffch in their time had been cast. When he was a grown man India was still gov-e-ned be * *ompan’ of merchants, and now it had a constitutional Governnieut in nis yout the great Australian Commonwealth and Canada were colonies, and when he was a schoolboy Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland were first built. Now the\ had seen what those powerful natiooalitlet had done in the war and in peace, how glorious were their deeds of arms, and how much they could teach the Gid Country, not merely in cricket, but in every form of industry and civilisation. If progress so vast had been achieved in the life-time of one man, what might not the future have in store for them and for us. He described Mr. Hughes as an unsurpassed orator in the Englfsh tongue, and Mr. Massey as a man of great experience, both in peace and war.

THE EMPIRE’S INFLUENCE. Mr. Hughes, replying, said Austra liana vere endeavoring to build up in their far-off land i civilisation saturated with British ideals. The overseas Dominions had. he believed, as great and glorious a future as the British raee could look back upon. Against the institutions of the British Empire to-day, all the forces of anarchy and destruction were gathered, but sg long as they stood firm together neither the forces of anarchy and destruction or of hell itself would prevail against them. Cheers.) Mr. Massey said the Empire had been a, tremendous power for good, spreading enlightenment in every corner of the eprth. The conference had done good work. Some people thought of the Empire as the United Kingdom, but beKldos India and the Dominions there were forty-three Crown Colonies. It was the aim of the conference to make these separate entities, to speak with ane voice as one nation. Notwithstanding the League of Nations, he eoula not help thinkinig that war had not ?nded. We must prepare against attack. and be strong enough to protect th? chain of nations of which the Em pire consists.- Cable Assn.