IMPERIAL UNITY

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10225, 29 April 1911, Page 5

IMPERIAL UNITY

CABLE NEWS

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph — Copyright-

MEMORIAL JO PRIME MINISTER.

A SYMPATHETIC RECEPTION.

Last Night, 11.5 . o'clock.) LONDON, April 28.

Mr J.. N. .Griffiths, M.jt\, :in introducing a deputation to the members of ,the House>of Commons, which presented the Hon. H. H. Asquith with & memorial .in. favour of an Imperial Council, bearing three hundred signatures, remarked that the deputation includes advanced Conservatives and Socialists, and its aim was tfco jalace .the question of Imperial Unity outside the zone of party polifics. If Mr Asquith gave a definite lead, he would be astonished at the ..enthusiasm his action would evtok© an ail parts «kf the Empire. Mr Cxawsliay Williams emphasised the growing regarding flhe necessity of machinery for bringing the Dominions iinto ■closer touch with those Imperial affairs which were at present mainly the ' Motherland's care, albeit affecting the Empire as a whole. .Several methods of achieving closer co-operation were advocated, it would be a mistake to A-ssusne a dogmatic tone or force upon the public * cut and dried plan. There oould scarcely be any doubt that an attempt on the part of His Majesty's 'Government to do so would have a considerable effect in sustaining and strengthening the Imperial sentiment in all parts of the Empire, and would gratify a large body. There was an opinion in Britain, which was ready to welcome any constitutional or reasonable method of facilitating the 00-operation of British democracies.

Mr A. Hammersley remarked that he was convinced from a number of years' residence in different parts of the Empire, that the suggestion embodied in the memorial would have the hearty approval of the vast majority of his fellow subjects."in?the Dominions, who leannestly desined 'practicable and speedy action tending to promote Empire consolidation without interfering with the auton* omy of the self-governing Dominion's.

THE PREMIER'S REPLY.

Mr Asquith, in reply, expressed his appreciation of the importance of the signatures appended to the memorial, which was more variously supported: than any he could remember to hare seen in the course of his career. He would have pleasun? in bringing the memorial hefore the Imperial Conference, and if an occasion for discussion was raised by New Zealand's resolution he promised to make the Conference freely acquainted with the significance of the signatures. Naturally' nothing of a practical nature : was /feasible in the direction suggested irij the, memorial without the fullest concurrence and consent of the overseas Dominions.

Hie deputation i acknowledged the sympathetic manner in which it was received.'