Bonds of Empire.

Waikato Argus, Volume XXIV, Issue 3751, 7 April 1908, Page 3

Bonds of Empire.

London, April 5. Mr J. G. Jenkins, the South Australian Agent-General, was banquetted last night. The Earl of Dudley, the new Governor-General of the Commonwealth, and the Earl of Jersey, formerly Governor of New South Wales, were present, and there was a representative gathering of commercial men. In responding to the toast of his health, Mr Price, Premier of South Australia, said that Englishmen should cultivate sentiment towards the colonies. If sentiment died out the ties binding the* Empire would fall asunder. South Australia, he Baid, had tried to work in harmony with the Federal Government, and all the talk about separation was only humbug. There was no party in Australia, Mr Price added, that would talk repudiation or be disloyal to the Empire, to which all were proud to belong. Two hundred persons attended the reception which was subsequently held London, April 6. The Standard, commenting on a pamphlet embodying a series of articles, published by the Sydney Morning Herald at the end of last year, dealing with British policy in the Pacific, says:—"Thi3 is a painful record of Colonial Office mismanagement and Imperial neglect. All the talk about Empire during the last two decades has left Downing-street nearly untouched. "Australian grievances," the article continues, "are actual. Other nations associate themselves with merchants and settlers' enterprises. Britain leaves her merchants to fight their own battles." The Standard cites the history of the Marshall Islands and New Hebrides in proof of this assertion. It does not attribute the responsibility wholly to the laxity and indolence of the Department, but blames Parliament and electorates for being absorbed in party conflicts and parochial cares to the neglect of Greater Britain."