ENGLISH-SPEAKING UNION.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 December 1921, Page 8

ENGLISH-SPEAKING UNION.

MR. BALFOUR AT HIS BEST. / AN ELOQUENT APPRECIATION. By Telegraph.—Tress Assn.—Copyright. New York, Dec. tt» Mr. Balfour, in a speech at a dinner of the English-Speaking Union, said Mr. Hughes saw that the only way to bring about the’ limitation., of armaments was to set an example which we would not be ashamed to follow. Mr. Hughes’ speech was the most remarkable utterance, ever made by any statesman under any circumstances. Mr. Balfour continued: “The branch of the English-speaking people I represent can claim no share in the glory of this move, but we can co-operate.” He added that the co-operation shown at Washington was merely the prehide to other great international action in which the British Empire and the United States would co-operate. He expressed the hope that whether the initiative came from east or west of the Atlantic, the two branches of the people would always be found on the same side. Mr. Baifour then read a cablegram from Mr. Lloyd George to the EnglishSpeaking Union as follows: “We watched with joy the reception accorded Mr. Balfour in the United States, and the brilliant opening of the Conference. The rapid progress made toward a great result has been like sunlight piercing an overcast and threatening sky.”

Air. Balfour continued: “Never have I desired anything more in my long public career than that Americans and Englishmen should --understand each other, should follow harmonious co-op-eration in all unselfish international ends. “The great claim of the Englishspeaking peoples is that they have been the disseminators of freedom throughout the world, in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, at the Cape, and in due share in other regions. The love of liberty to English-speaking peoples wherever they live finds adequate expression, but it is not merely within the bounds'of the United States or of the British Empire that we have served the cause of liberty. By our example we have surely done as much. It is either our unwritten Constitution, or your written Constitution, which has supplied the world with the model of Government.”