IMPERIAL PRESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 192, 15 August 1925, Page 15

IMPERIAL PRESS.

GATHERING IN MELBOURNE,

DELEGATES ON THE WAY.

AUCKLAND VISITED EN ROUTE,

The Imperial Press Conference is to be held this year at Melbourne, when between forty and fifty delegates from Britain, Canada, Malta, India, Rangoon, West Indies, South Africa, and New' Zealand will meet the Australian delegates.

Under the leadership of Lord Burnham, president of the Empire Press Union, the conferenece will discuss matters relating to newspaper enterprise in all its varied forms.

A party of the English and Canadian delegates is aboard the Aorangi, which is due to reach Auckland from Vancouver to-morrow-, and they will Bpend ten days or so in the Dominion before.going on to the conference, which opens on September 2.

Below are short sketches of some of the more notable of the delegates.

THE PRESIDENT. i , i LORD BURNHAM'S CAREER. * Lord Burnham belongs to' a family that has built up its fortunes entirely on newspaper enterprise. His grandfather had a printing business in Shoe Lane between 1840 and 1850, and was the proprietor for some years of the "Sunday Times," upon which paper his father had his initiation into journalism, and wrote constantly as dramatic and musical critic. The "Daily Telegraph," which appeared as the "Daily Telegraph and Courier" in June, 1855, was printed for three months by his grandiather, who took it over, and produced it as the "Daily Telegraph" on September 5 of that year at the price of one penny. It was the first penny newspaper to he published, and it achieved considerable success from its earliest days. Edward Levy-Lawson, who afterwards became the first Lord Burnham, spent his whole life in the service of the newspaper, and was actually its editor from the end of the 'CO's to the middle '80s. During the second half of the Victorian era he exercised a great.influence in the political and social life of the country, and he was constantly the host aridguest of King Edward VII., when he was Prince of Wales, and of the leading figures in British society. No person was better known in the House of Commons, for it was his practice almost every day that Parliament sat to go into the lobby and discuss matters with the leaders of public opinion in the various, parties. It was said of him by Mr. T. P. O'Connor, who was sub-editor in the office of the "Daily Telegraph" in the late 'GO's and early 70's, that he had been the first to introduce the human interest into newspaper articles, and he was undoubtedly a great pioneer in making his paper the reflection of the social and artistic life of the nation, as distinct from its political happenings. He broke away from the old tradition of limiting the interests of the Press to the formal events of the time, and he struck the personal note of human sympathy and fellowship in the daily narrative of the history of our own time. He died full of years and honours in January, 1910, bowed down by the sorrows of his old age, which included the loss of two out of his three grandsons, both officers in the Brigade of Guards, in the battlefields of Flanders.

His Education. The present Lord Burnham was educated with a view to his taking part in public life both as a politician and journalist. He was sent to Eton College, where he was in the sixth form and took the school prize for history. He passed from there to Balliol College, Oxford, then under the rule of the famous Professor Jowett, and he took second-class honours in classical moderations and a first-class in the final schools of modern history. Whilst he was at Oxford he was secretary of the Union Debating Society and of the Palmerston Club, then the principal Liberal Club of the University. • The great Jowett took a special interest in his University career, and often advised him as to his future avocation. He was actually an undergraduate when he married Olive, second daughter of General Sir Henry de Bathe, Bart., X.C.8., and he did not take his final schools until six months after his wedding. It was always his ambition to enter .tie House of Commons at the earliest possible date, and he had entertained the hope of succeeding his uncle, the late Mr. BrydgesWillyams, as member for Truro. The Redistribution Act of 1884 upset his plans, but he was selected for the newly-constituted division of West St. Pancras, and at the age of 22 he was elected as the youngest member of the House of Commons, and he sat for that constituency until 1892, when he was defeated. He was re-elected for East Gloucestershire in 1893, after a first election in October, 1892, had been declared void on a tie, ; and represented this country division until 1895. Then came a considerable break in his Parliamentary life, and he did not re-enter Parliament until 1905 as member of .the Mile End division of the. Tower Hamlats He lost his seat in 1906, but was re-elected in 1910, and sat for the borough until 1916", when he was called to the House of Lords on the death of his father. It is a curious fact in these days of big numbers that the aggregate majorities by which he was elected three times for Mile End were under 200 in all. From the first he took great interest in local government as the basis of British freedom, and he was elected to represent West St. Pancras on the first London County Council in 1889, and later on, he represented Whitechapel on that body for seven years, besides which he was Mayor of Stepney m 1908 and 1909. He 'has been chairman and president of a vast number of commissions and committees, parliamentary and otherwise. The first one was one of great importance, the Royal Commission on Civil Establishments, whjch sat from 1889 to 1894, and remodelled the Civil Service of the country. Of late years he was a leading member of the Speakers' Conference on Election. Reform, which drafted the last Reform Act of 1918, and then he was again selected for the Second Chamber Conference, presided over by the late Viscount Bryce, which was set up in order to arrive at an agreed settlement for the reform of the House of Lords. - Durin" the war he was concerned with Enumerable bodies of a like kind. He was chariman of the Foreigners' Committee of National Seiyice, and of the.. Officers' Resettlement Committ-2, and he w s acting chairman of the Resettlement Committee, which provider! for the restoration to civil life of the men enlisted in the forces of the Crown for the period of the war. For-a time he acted as chairman of the promotion committee

of the War Office, which was first pre- ! sided over by Mr. Winston Churchill, and he was a member of the Empire Settlement Committee, presided over by j Lord Tennyson,-and the Seditious; Literar ~ ture Committee, presided over by Mr. Justice Shearman. For three years he j was chairman of the executive committee | of the King's Fund for disabled ex-Serr vicemen, and of the London and South Eastern Employment Council. He is still chairman of the Standing Joint Committees on the Salaries of which are commonly called the Burnham committees. They have drawn up the ' scales of teachers' salaries in all classes of schools, and these, too, have been called the Burnham Scales.

Lord Burnham is a prominent member of the Overseas Settlement Commit-! tee of the Colonial Office, having been pre-, viously a member of the Emigrants' Information Committee since 1894. Chit-; side these official duties, he has taken'a prominent part in all the great organisa-1 tions of the newspaper Press. He sue,ceeded his father as president of the - Newspaper Press Fund, and the News-' vendors f Benevolent Institution. Ih 1910 he was president of'the Institute of ; Journalists, of which his father had been the second president in 1892. From its inception he has been chairman of the Newspaper Proprietors' Association, which is the business organisation of the metropolitan Press, and during the war he was chairman of the Press Conference,; which comprehended the whole of the! Pressl of the United Kingdom, and had ', consigned to jjt most responsible duties: in the regulation of news and the pro- j motion of national interests. He was con- j nected with the Empire Press Union j from its foundation, and.sin.cc 1916, in succession to his father, has been. its president. In that capacity he presided, over the Imperial Press Conference at Ottawa in 192.0, just as his father had presided over the first Imperial Press Conference in London in 19.09, which marked such an important. date in the development of the newspaper Press as a great power, both within and without the State. In 1921 he was unanimously elected president of the International Labour Conference of the League of Nations at Geneva. This was in reality the first regular conference ever sum- ' moned, as the inaugural congress at Washington .was more or less experimental, and the second at Genoa had been confined solely to shipping. He was reelected in 1922, and these two conferences may be termed the organic sessions of the International Labour Organisation, which was then put on secure foundations. Lord Burnham has always held that its principal function is to mould public opinion throughput the world to humane principles of industrial production, ensuring both efficiency of output and contentment among the workers. Besides this, he has held a good many civic and local offices. Lord Burnham served in the Bucks Yeopianry from 1883 to 1913, and commanded it for the last 11 years of his service. Almost immediately on the commencement of war he joined up again, and was given command of the second reserve regiment, which he trained from 1915 to 1917. He has always taken the keenest interest in the territorial army, and did much to aid in its reorganisation, which was carried out by Lprd Haldane, when he was Secretary of State for War, to such a point that it proved itself capable of the gigantic efforts which increased the battalions of every unit, in some cases to tenfold the original strength, during the Great Wan

In 1917 he was created a Companion of Honour of the British Empire on the institution of the order, and he has received many decorations from foreign Powers. He has the Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold 11. of Belgium, and the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Redeemer of Greece. He is a Grand Officer of the Crown of Italy and of the .Star of Roumania. He is a commander of the Legion of Honour, and of the Order of Leopold. He is an M.A. of Oxford University, LL.D. of Cambridge University, LL.D. of Mac Gill University, Montreal, and D.Litt. of Durham. Besides that during the present year, on the occasion of the Byron centenary celebrations, he was made an LL.D. of the University of Athens, apd an honorary citizen of the City of Athens.

MEMBERS OF THE DELEGATION DIRECTING ."THE TIMES." Major John Jacob Astor, M.P., is the new directing brain behind- "The Times." In the autumn of 1922 he purchased the interests of the late Lord Northcliffe, and is now chairman and principal proprietor of "The Times" Publishing Company.

He is a sporting man, athlete, soldier and Journalist. He was in the Eton cricket eleven in 1904. In 1905 he won the public school racquets. He has played polo, and has won steeplechases. He plays tennis and golf, and he shoots< and fishes.

His career as a soldier started in 1906, when he joined the First Life Guards. He was A.D.C. to the Viceroy of India from 1911 to 1914, but as soon as the war began, he was in France with the Household Cavalry —he served during that raemorabale retreat from Mons. He was wounded at the first Battle of Ypres, but was back in France again within a month. In 1918 he changed to the artillery, and commanded a heavy battery, but was severely wounded in September of that year, and returned to England to settle down as a politician and journalist. ~ In November, 1922, he was elected as Unionist member for the Dover division of Kent, and has held the seat since. His public interests, apart altogether from 'The Times," are varied. He is an alderman of the London County Council, president of the Kent Council of the British Legion, a member of the executive committee of the King's Roll National Council,, a member of the Ministry of Labour and Juvenile Unemployment Committee, a governor of the Middlesex Hospital, and is identified prominently with dozens pf charitable institutions.

It was Major Astor who initiated and directed the plan which has made the ownership of The Times" a National trust, and he has put nearly a million pounds into it on a basis which can never give him a high return.

The Cadburys. Mr. Henry T.Cadbiiry has taken the closest personal interest in. the "Daily News." In fact, 'close devotion to newspaper work in London has bean a factor in impairing his sight and to some extent his "general health. '. The "Daily News" was taken up by the Cadburys much more for the furtherance of their own political ideals— to which they are intensely devoted— than as a commercial proposition, and, notwithstanding that the paper has made great strides purely as a news or<*an, they still regard it more in the light of an outlet for their; own ideas. That it has become a highly successful newspaper is merely incidental to the Cadbury habit of success. The name of Cadbury, of course, is linked with cocoa and chocolate all over the world, but to all people who have studied industrialism in England

it is linked with what is commercially called a sidelight of their industry, but which is morally and industrially one of the finest achievements in the modern World—the establishment .of $he model village of Bournville.

For as low as 6/ a week rental the happy residents of Bournville live in homes that would cost in Auckland over f2. And the fascinating feature is that at this amazingly low rental, go highlyorganised is the scheme financially, there is'actually a return ,of over' .4 per cent! However, this return is not regarded as a profit—it goes back for the further development of the village and the purchase of. additional land. Weeklies and Magazines, The name of ffewnes is linked, inevitably with thai;;«greajfc chajn of weeklies and magazines vlthat;. hrigfhteh the life of London and "vaguest corners of ths worid. . v : '' : V; i ■'?;.;;' . : .';-;'.'v. ,;.''. : ' '-Jt was Sir George,Newnes'wlw .stiamd them. His eldest son, Sir' Frank Newnes, now carries themon 3 It l.si Sir. Frank who is a. delegate to the.congress in .Australia. • ■''•'•' Sir Frank was educated at Clare College, Cambridge, and when he left was called to the Bar. But, instead/ he. entered the great business of George Newnes, Ltd., and in JB9B became a'direetor. '•.-'.■ He is also a director of Country life, Ltd., Arthur Pearson, 'Ltd., ami the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Sosiety,:.,ahd is chairman of the Newnes and Pearson Printing Company. Man Who Conceived Congress, It is to one_of the delegates, Sir Harry Brittain, M.P., that the regular Imperial Press Conferences are due. While in Canada jn 1907 with Lord Strathcona he conceived the idea, and the first conference was subsequently organised and took place in London in 1909. And one of the direct results of this first conference was the formation of a permanent body, the Empire Press Uiyon itself. Sir Harry Brittain, a Yorkshireman, educated at Repton and Oxford, began life in Fleet Street with Sir William Ingram, at thai time proprietor of the "Illustrated London News" and "Sketch." Later he joined Sir Arthur Pearson in the early days of the "Daily Express" and his many other papers. Sir Harry was also a director of the "Sphere" and "Tatler." * % He has been member of Parliament for the Acton division of Middlesex since 1918. -■ : • .' i Chain of Newspapers. Sir Edward Iliffe is interested in a whole chain of English newspapers,- but is coming to Australia to represent more particularly the periodical trade press ■• and weekly newspaper -proprietors. ■ He •is a vice-president of their association— an association that represents over 600 publication s& He is a director of Allied Newspapers, Ltd., which takes in the "Sunday Times," "Sunday Chronicle," "Empire News," "World's Pictorial News," "Daily Dispatch," "Manchester Evening Chronicle" and the "Sporting Chronicle." j

Shaw, pf "The TifliM"' An Irish barrister ■with a captivating style as a political writer is Mr. R, J. Herbert Shaw, of "The Times." ' Until 1914 be was. secretary of the Irish Unionist Alliance and"joint secretary of the .Unionist Associations of Ireland. Then he joined the Fifth Service Battalion Connaught Rangers,-and in 1915 -was with them and the Austral lians at Anzac as captain.. He was appointed assistant private secretary to the Viceroy of India in 1918, but a year later joined r <'The Times" as political leader writer. -"He 'now'acts as -Major - A'stor's per' sona.l representative on the paper.

Journalistic Caxtons. The Eight Hon. Charles Wm. Bowerman is Labpur member for Deptford. He entered journalism as a compositor, and while occupying administrative positions in eoneetion with the London Society of Compositors and the Trades Union Congress he also took part in in public affairs, and was elected as an alderman of London in 1911, and in 1906 ho pot into the House of Commons for Deptford, a seat he has since retained.

Colonel Sir Joseph Reed, who is general manager and part proprietor of the Newcastle "Chronicle,'* is another representative of the mechanical side of newspaper work. He served his articles as an engineer, and was borrowed to superintend the construction of the first linotype machines for the Newcastle "Chronicle." He became works manager of the, "Chronicle," succeeded his father as manager, and became inseparably associated with' the British Press. As an old volunteer, lie threw himself body and eoul into the recruiting movements during the war, and later was largely instrumental in financing and establishing the Cowen Training School for disabled soldiers. He was knighted in 1922.

News Agency Expert. Mr. Frederick Jas. Higginbotom is another man with a first-hand knowledge of news-agency work. He started in newspaper work as a boy at Southport in Lancashire, and four years later removed to London to«take up subeditorial and correspondency work for the Press Association. He combined his activities at the Press Association office with corresponding for a number of provincial papers, making a specialty of political neWs. In 1909 he joined the "Pall Mall Gazette" as editor, a post he occupied for three years. He travelled to Sweden in 1906 as a member of the deputafion of British editors, and again to Germany in 1907 with a similar party. In 1917 he was director of Press Intelligence in the Ministry of National Service, and he has regularly held office in the Institute of Journalists.

He Knows Rugby. Mr. Ernest Woodhead, of the "Huddersfield Daily Examiner," will probably take an especial interest in New Zealand's national game from the fact that he himself was a Rugby player away" back in the 'eighties, and has played for Edinburgh University and Yorkshire County, and in 1883 was selected for England against Ireland. He started his journalistic career as a reporter on the "Llanelly Gua,rdian," and t,hence pursued his profession in all parts of England, specialising in music, education, and insurance, as well as playing cricket and Rugby. . : Been Through the Mill.

There are with the party two compatriots of Mr. ' Lloyd George in Sir William Davies and Mrl David Davies, both'of whom are working journalists who have gone through the mill. Both of them started as reporters on the "Llanelly Guardian," and won their way through to editorial positions. Mr. David Davies is now editor, managing director, and v part proprietor of the "Swansea Daily Post," and takes an active interest' in the public affairs of the town. Sir William at the moment is the'editor"of the "Western Mail" of Cardiff. Both are keen supporters of the Institute of Journalists. Sir William was knighted

A Canadian Cousin. Mr. John W. Dafqe, editor of the "Winnipeg Free Press," represents : a product of city journalism in Canada. He joined the staff of the "Montreal Slar'' at the age of 17, and ever since then has been occupied with jpurnalism in the cities of Montreal and Winnipeg. He became editor of the "Herald," Montreal, in 1892, at the age of 26J tgnd ever since then has been recognised as one of the leading journalists in Eastern and Central Canada," He returned to the "Star" as editor in 1895,' and 14 years ago he took the editorship of the '"Winnipeg Free Press," where he has since remained. His publications- include a description of Canadian battlefields, and a study of -Canadian politics. Sir John Findlay is a graduate of Oxford College and proprietor of , the "Scotsman;" He takes a close interest in art/and when on holiday his recriesa.tjon. rUns chiefly to shooting and fishing. Began as Correspondent. :

Sir'Emßley Carr -began his career in the office of the. "Western Mail" in 18.85, and Since then, j»s speqial correspondent [ and Parliamentary representative, has represented his special- group of papera in all the most'important national and Imperil' functions in England and abroad. He is now parti proprietor, direc-1 tor/ and editorV'of the "News -of the' World,'', vice-chairman of' the "Western Mail," "Weekly Mail," and "Evening Express," Cardiff, a" director pf -.George. :Newnes, Ltd., and president of the iSouth' Wales Press Benefit Society. He received his knighthood in 1918 for distinguished, service during, the war. . " A.P;H. of "Punch:" Mr. Alan Patrick Herbert is widely' known to the British public as "A.P.H:"; of "Punch," to which journal he has' been a contributor since 1910. He had just finished his education at Oxford when war broke out in 1914, and he ; served with the Royal Naval Division] at Gallipoli and in the North Sea until wounded in France in 1917, having risen in rank from ordinary seaman to lieutenant. He was called to the bar in 1918, but never practised, and for, two years was private secretary t.o Sjr Leslie Scott, K.C., M.P. He wrote several' books and a comic opera, and last year" joined the staff of "Punch,".. for which he had been a regular . contributor.

Noted War Correspondent. ..Sir Pereiyal. Phillips, now a "Daily; Mail"- special correspondent, graduated in American journalism, having been: born in the States and taking to news- 1 paper work early. He. was with the Greek Army in the war against Turkey as a war correspondent, and also did Press work at.the "front in the SpanishAmerican war. He,joined the staff of the London "Daily Express" in 1901, and was chief war correspondent for that joi|Tnal in the .Russo-Jap war. His travels were extended 'by acting for his "paper in connection with the Jamaica earthquake in 19Q7, the Balkan wars, revolutions in Catalonia and Portugal, the Champagne riots (France) in 1911, the Italian expedition in Tripoli, the Delhi Durbar and a succession of Royal tours. He was in Belgium at the outbreak of the European war and- was . with the Belgian' field army till the faU of Antwerp, after which he Haw the war through (as ia correspond dent) On the Western Front. His subsequent service for the paper included seeing the; revolution in Ireland through, and then accompanying the Prince of Wales on his yarious, world tours, with visits in the intervals to Mesopotamia \to inquire into "British Administration there, to Italy; to write; about Fascist! and .to; •fche*Bubr.''*'! He 1920^>

RECEPTION IN AUCKLAND.

VISIT TO SCENIC CENTRES. PRESS DINNER IN WELLINGTON. The bulk of the party from Britain, who lire travelling under arrangements made for them hy the Cook Agency, will be met U Aucklamd to-morrow by members of the New Zealand branch of the Empire Press Union, who have arranged a series of tours and entertainments for the pairty during their stay in the Dominion. They will be given a civic reception in Auckland on Monday> and will bo otherv>'se entertained. The travel programme includes a trip to Rotorua, back to the Waitomo eaves, thence across aountry to New Plymouth, and then by special train to Wellington, wi.h a stop ior luncheon at Wanganui.

In Wellington they will be given a reception at Goverment House on Wednesday, August 26, and that evening they will be entertained at the Empire Press Union dinner. The following day they will be entertained at a Government luncheon, and they will leave Wellington by special train late on Thursday night, to enable them to see the scenic portion of the Main Trunk line to Auckland by daylight. They will leave CNew Zealand, accompanied by the Dominion delegates, on August 29, in order to reach Sydney for the opening pf the conference on September 1, FULL LIST OF THE VISITORS. . The full list of the visitors is as follows: — Britain. Viscount Burnham, president Empire Press Union and proprietor "Daily Telegraph." Viscountess Burnham, representing the Society of Women Journalists. Major, the Hon. J. J. Astor, M.P., hon. treasurer Empire Press Union and chairman of the "Times" Publishing Company. Mr. R. J. N. Shaw, the "Times." Captain Anthony Eden, M.P., "Yorkshire Post." Mr. J. R. Findlay, "Scotsman." Mr. N. B. Graham, "Express and Star," Wolverhampton. Mr. A. P. Herbert, "Punch." Mr. H. T. Cadbury, the "Daily News." Sir Edward Iliffe, Periodical Trade Press and Weekly Newspapers -Proprietors' Association, also Iliffe and Sons, Ltd. Sir Emsley Carr, "News of the World." Sir Frank Newnes, George Newnes, Ltd., also Periodical Trade Press and Weekly Newspapers Proprietors' Association. Sir Harry Brittain, M.P., chairman of London Council Arrangements Committee. Sir William Davies, "Western Mail." Mr. David Davies, South Wales "Daily Post." Sir Joseph Reed, representing Press Association. Mr. E. Woodhead, Haiddersfield '"Daily Exatain'er." '•■■•- Mr. C." Bowerman;- P. 0., MP., \ president National Printing and Kindred Trades Employees' Federation. Sir Percival Phillips, "Daily Mail" and Associated Newspapers, Ltd. ,^,

Mrs. A. W. Moore, Sheffield "Daily Telegraph," "Review of Reviews," and' "T.P,'s Weekly." Mr. F- J- Higginbottom, "Daily Chronicle" and United Newspapers, Ltd.; Mrs. Henson Infield, Sussex "Daily News." India, Crown Colonies, and Dependencies, Mr. H. Smiles, "Rangoon .Gazette " Dr. Augusto . Bartolo, Malta "Daily Ghroniple." Miß.3 Mary Moseley, "Nassau Guard-, ian," Bahamas, West Indies. Canada. Mr. J, ■W. Dafqe, "Free Press,?' Winnipeg. Mr. J, H. Woods, Calgary "Herald.". Mr. W- A. Craick, "Industrial Canada/; Toronto, representing Weekly and Period--ical Press. Mr. C. F. -Crandall, British United: Press, Montreal. Mr. John Bassett, "Montreal Gazette.*" Mr; Hugh .Savage. Mr. O'Leary and Mrs. CLeary. The following are the names of the ladies, secretaries, etc., who will accompany the delegation Burnham' and maid (-Lady Burnham is also a delegate), Lady Violet Astor, maid and' yalet, Mrs. A.-. iEden, !Mrs, 'NY B. Graham and Miss Graham .(ther! jatter is travelling-with her parents and; is not attached to the .delegation), Mrs. Cadbury, Miss Jiiffe, Lady .Carr, Lady Ne\vnes, Lady Davies, Lady Reed, Mr. H. E. Turner (secretary Empire Press Union), M.r- W. O. F-irfax (attached to. the delegation), and Mrs. J. W. Dafoe. MAJOR ASTQB W CANADA. THE INDUSTRIAL OUTLOOK.

MIGRATION IN THE EMPIRE.

.Major J. J. Astor, who acted as advance guard of the greater body of the delegates from the "British Isles, and while staying at the Ri'tz Carlton Hotel in Montreal, he gave some interesting views on present-day topics, remarking at- the outset: "Outside countries .cannot enter into a trade agreement with .Russia or open any negotiations ■ with that country until some guarantee is given that she will honour her debts. Any dealing with Russia at the present time would only be bolstering up the Soviet GovernmentlThere can be no agreement or trade relations, with Russia until she alters her economic policy."

Major Astor stated that at the present /time Russia was hopeless.

As .to England and the industrial out--look, he stated that conditions were; very bad when he left and the outlook; was none too bright. In connection' with ;tjie' dole he stated he was strongly; in -favour 'of unemployment and "sick-jj ness insurance. "People cannot be blamed when industry is in a slump and unemployment general. They have to; live ;Spme way and the Government has to .do ;6omething for them. The-dole; system is the only plan available so' far. Ni> doubt' there have been cases, where tliis system is abused, but there has been a good deal of exaggeration- ia' this matrter, and efforts are being made to ttighten the system. The Baldwin Government is very strong in England and jn.o .doubt it will carry on for some time." Regarding Labour, he said it did not receive much of a setback at the last election.

"The word Labour means a great deay he added. "It covers a multitude- of things, and there is no doubt, bujt $iat there will be a Labour Government in England again." ;" favours Empire Migration.

Major Astor was anxious to know about conditions in Canada, and said he. was in favour of immigration within the Empire. "I believe there Is a great opportunity in the Dominions for immigrants of the right type. The future in .Canada seems to be very bright."

As to the -League of Nations, Major Astor :said that this body has done wonderful .things within its scope, but as to the possibility of eliminating war altogether, She expressed grave doubt. "War will -nayer -be abolished in our generation and it is quite problematic whether it .ever ishall disappear."

In connection with the newspaper' business, he stated that it was allabsorbing. Major Astor is chief proprietor of the London "Times." Oneof £he .objects of the Press conference, he .said, was to endeavour to bring, aboitt & reduction in the rates for cablegrams and wireless reports. The high rates charged for these reports, he said, proved a hindrance in the sending ,of foreign news. If a reduction .came about, 'ihe thought, more foreign newei could jbe printed in the papers and thus; bring the parts of the Empire closer together. Lady Violet Astor, wife of Major Astor,, Sis the daughter of. Lord MintOjj former Governor-General of Canada/ and has spent much time in Canada. j DELEGATION AT FIJI. POSITION OF CROWN COLONIES. STRONGER VOICES NEEDED. SBy Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright- \ SUVA, August 14. ! The. Government, Chamber of Commerce and the Press of Fiji entertained; the Empire Press Union delegates yes-; terday. The visitors were taken for a; 25 miles circular drive and witnessed native ceremonies at the Methodist Mis-' sion station. At an informal gathering Viscount Burnham, president of the Union, sajd the iGrpwn Colonies often suffered from too much meekness. A greater spiritof .co-operation between them was needed. They ought to assert themselves a little more at the general headquarers of the. Empire and never be satisfied until they 'had secured what they wanted. The affairs of the Crown Colonies should not be relegated to a small room, in one of the dark passages of the ; Colonial Office.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.)