COLONIAL PREMIERS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8411, 27 April 1907, Page 5

COLONIAL PREMIERS.

PARLIAMENTARY BANQUET.

Received April 26, 7.52 a.m. LONDON, April 25. Speaking at the Parliamentary banquet to the Premiers at Westminster Hall, Sir Henry CampbellBannerman emphasised the relation l ship between the Motherland and the great oversea States. It was not an alliance nor a partnership, but a family relationship based on community of purpose and an ideal union, because all derived their life from independent representative government. Mr Balfour, leader of the Opposition, was delighted to welcome the representatives of nations who derived their highly-prized institutions within a few yards from where they now assembled. Surely, if anywhere, their guests should feel at" home within the venerable precincts where their liberties were cradled. They inherited all that their 1 forefathers had conquered for themselves in the way of freedom and self-government. (Cheers) Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Prime Minister for Canada, was glad that some members of the British Parliament had come from the daughter nations, because if differences arose their influence would alwa>s be used to promote peace, harmony, and conciliation. He would return Home more impressed than ever with the desirability of Imperial unity, with a basis of local autonomy. The Hon. James Lowther, Speaker of the House of Commons, said that even if tlie Motherland took a grandmotherly interest in her progeny, it was due to excess of zeal, not to indifference. After luncheon, Mrs Lowther held a reception of the colonial guests.