SIR HAL COLEBATCH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 June 1938, Page 7

SIR HAL COLEBATCH

REPORT OF RECENT SPEECH DENIED SPORT NOT MADE OF BRITISH LIBERTY NO ADVOCACY OF COMPULSORY TRAINING By Telegraph—Press Association. Copyright. LONDON, June 15. The report of a speech by the AgentGeneral for Western Australia, Sir Hal Colebatch, at Cardiff recently, dealing with Britons in Australia, misrepresented the speaker in substance and tone. Sir Hal did not suggest that Britons were degenerate and did not advocate compulsory military training. He strongly appealed for better opportunities for youth, urging that what totalitarians were forcing on their youth in the interests of the State should be available to all classes of children in democratic countries for the children’s good. Sir Hal Colebatch did not make sport of British liberty, but instanced cases in which liberty had degenerated into licence and emphasised that responsibilities attached to the enjoyment of democratic liberty. The audience did not sit either in silence or in dumb amazement. The speech was received with the warmest appreciation. There have been numerous requests for Sir Hal Colebatch to address similar meetings in England under the auspices of the Overseas League. Sir Hal Colebatch, when addressing a branch of the Overseas League at Cardiff, was reported to have expressed the opinion that present-day Britons were incapable of founding a new empire. The report said he drew a comparison between Britons who settled in Australia and found life too hard and the gains too few and the southern Europeans who enter the country without official encouragement and made good by hard work. His hearers, the report added, sat in silence as Sir Hal made sport of Britain’s so-called liberty, and said: “What is wanted in this country is a 10-year plan aimed at building up the people’s mental, moral and physical standard.” He was stated to have advocated compulsory military training, adding that Australia wanted a 98 per cent British population, but must have Britons of the right sort.