THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1908. NEEDLESS RETICENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9049, 7 February 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1908. NEEDLESS RETICENCE.

On Tuesday last Sir Joseph Ward was afforded an opportunity of sending a wireless telegraphic message from a cruiser in Wellington to Sydney via a warship in mid ocean. For some reasdn or other the contents of the despatch were kept a profound secret; the only fact that leaked out at the time being that the message had something to say about "the grand old flag." The full text has now been published. It is simply ono of those courteous, pleasant official despatches which potentates find useful in knitting people together when friction arises, but contain nothing beyond generalities which may bo sincere or the reverse. There was not much need to make a mystery of it, because everyone would readily approve of the sentiments contained in the message, though they 1 ' may in parts be a little "high falutin." The despatch runs: —"Right Hon. Mr Deakin, Prime Minister, Commonwealth of Australia, Melbourne.—' Thanks to the courtesy of his Excellency Admiral Fawkes, I am enabled

by the medium of wireless telegraphy to send you and your fellow countrymen cordial greeting and heartiest good wishes for the progress, prosperity and development of Australia. May the ties of kinship and the bonds of friendship that have ever eixsted between us as sister countries continue, and while each strtnuously prosecutes such policies as are best calculated to serve the true interests of its people, may each, as proud members of the British Empire, continue to grow in prestige and strength, and ever help to increase the influence and enhance the glory of the Grand Old Flag."