Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1911. SIR WILFRID LAURIER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10235, 11 May 1911, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1911. SIR WILFRID LAURIER.

Those who may have conjured up ideas ifchat Sir Wilfrid Laurier, she Prime Minister of Canada, is inspired with disloyal motives in his reciprocity overtures with the United Startas, will have their calculations "rudely upset iwlien they read that Sir Wilfred is loyal ffco the backbone. Speaking in defence of tfhe Government policy recently, lie said:—lf my poor voice could be heard throughout the length and breadth of this country, and if without any presumption it could be heard also beyond the. frontier, I would say to our American neighbours, flattering as unay be to their pride the idea that ithe territory of the Republic should extend over the whole continent, from the waters of ihe Gulf of Mexico to the waters of the Arctic Ocean, 'remember that we Canadians were born under ,the same flag as were our ancestors, a flag under

which perhaps you may have suffered some oppression, but which to s uis has been and is aiore than ever •ftie emblem of freedom. (Great cheering). Remember that if you have founded a nation upon separation from the Mother Land, we Canadians have set our hearts upon building up a nation without separation, and in this task were already far advanced with our institutions, with our national entity as a people, and' with everything that TOiistdtutes a nation to whom we are just as devoted as you are to yours. (Cheers.) Remember thiaifc the blood which flows in our veins is just as good as your own, and that if you are a proud people w,e are just' a:s proud as you are, and that rather than part with our national existence we would part with our lives. (Renewed cheering.) If my voice <could he heard that far, I would presume to ,say to our American friends, there may be a spectacle perhaps (nobler yet than the spectacle of a united continent, a ispectacle which would astound the world by its novelty and grandeur, the spectacle of two peoples 'living side by side for a disTanoe of 4000 miles, a line which is hardly visible in many quarters, with not a cannon, not a gun frowning across it, with a fortress om either side, with no armament one against the other,, but living in harmony, in mutual confidence, and with no other rivalry than generous emulation in commerce and the arte of peace.. (Great Liberal cheers). To the Canadian people I. would say that, if it As possible for us to obtain isuch relations between these two young and growing nations, Canada would have rendered to Old England the mother of nations, nay, to the wh'oje British Empire, a service unequalled in its present effect, and still moTe in its far-reaching consequences. (Prolonged Lrberal cheering, in the midst of -which Sir Wilfrid Laurier res l ed his seat, after speaking for exactly two hours).