BON VOYAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 303, 22 December 1926, Page 7

BON VOYAGE.

MR. BRUCE FAREWELLED. IMPRESSIVE TRIBUTES. BRITAIN'S POUTER TO RISE. jßy Cable.—Press Association.— Copyright.) ißeceirpil 11.30 a.m.) LONDON", December 21. Under the chairmanship of Sir Joseph Cook a representative gathering assembled ut Australia House at a furewell lunelieon to Mr. S. M. Bruce. Those present included Mr. L. C. M. S. Amery, Dominion Secretary. Lord Burnharu, the Acent-General of Australia, Brigadier-General Deane, BrigadierGeneral Dodds, Sir Henry Galwav. Mr. Arthur Henderson, Sir Douglas *Hog"-, Attorney-General, Sir Douglas Mawson] Kir Newton Moore, Sir Matthew Nathan, Lord Rirldell, Marquess of Salisbury, Sir Mark Sheldon, and Lord Stanley. The chairman read an apology from Earl Balfour, in which the latter expressed the highest opinion of Mr. Brace's statesmanship. Sir Joseph Cook said Mr. Bruce had faced arduous tasks, including the transfer of the Federal capital, but with the turning of the year, indicated by the shortest day, the Empire, including Australia, faced a bright and prosperous future. Mr. Amery, proposing the health of Mr. Bruce, extolled hia great part in the conference and •wished him a happy journey. Sir Douplas Hogg recalled the fact that Mr. Bruce had studied in his chambers and he regretted he had not foreseen that he would develop into a great Prime Minister. Mr. Bruce, on rising to respond, was received with cheers, the large audience standing. He said: "I know what will Bappen when I return. My friends will say: 'You had a good holiday, I suppose you are ready to do your work.' I regret it should have been said that a newera will dawn in the Empire with my departure. (Laughter.) "Sir Douglas Hogg would have been a much greater man if he had grasped the fact that his future Prime Minister was the worst, the most incompetent and the laziest pupil he ever had. "The observations concerning Australia made by Lord Salisbury and Mr. Henderson will be of the utmost value to Australia." Continuing, Mr. Bruce said: "The Empire Conference, which found a solution acceptable to all parts of the Empire was held just at the right moment. We have read with the profoundest satisfaction of General Hertzog's reception in South Africa, where an unprecedented spirit of co-operation has been created. THE OUTSTANDING FIGURE. "Lord Balfour was the outstanding figure of the conference in solving our political and constitutional troubles. As hitherto British commonaense overcame an utter lack of logic in the course we had pursued, so it would triumph in future. Up to the last three months India was the Empire's greatest customer, but to-day Australia and New Zealand with their 7,000,000 population, obtained precedence, defeating every other people on earth for trade within the Empire. "The Empire is awakening to the possibilities of its future. I was somewhat alarmed three years ago by our spirit of facile, rather shallow optimism, but whenever we have faced a difficulty we have overcome it. Yet we always gave ourselves much unnecessary trouble by awaiting an- emergency instead of foreseeing it. "Fortunately that tendency is disappearing. We have realised that we cannot rely on the good God to attain our objects for us. We must do it for ourselves. I will leave England with the absolute belief that during the next three years we shall see a progress hitherto unexampled. MAINTAIN IMPERIAL SPIRIT. "We must maintain the Imperial spirit in the intervals between conferences. I hope if I am permitted to refriirn hither I will experience a repetition of the courtesy and hospitality extended, to Australia and myself."' Lqrd Burnham, proposing the health of the chairman, said Sir Joseph Cook was a British institution, as popular in Britain as in Australia. "On behalf of the entire British Press," said Lord Burnham, "I convey to Mr, Bruce a farewell message of goodwill. Australia is lucky in having so pleasing a personality as Mr. Brace's to embody its patriotism." Sir Joseph Cook, in responding, wished everybody the compliments of the seaeon. EXCHANGE OF JOURNALISTS. STIMULATE EMPIRE OPINION. (Received 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, December 21. Mr. Bruce made a significant utterance at the farewell gathering at Australia House in connection with education stimulating Imperial opinion when he said: "Inter-Imperial sentiment must not be built up from the point at which the last Imperial Conference terminated but must be kept alive in the interval. This can be compassed by au exchange of the right people. "Much has been said about the interchanging of teachers. I suggest that those with the greatest power to educate public opinion, namely, the Press representatives, should be exchanged, some from Australia with English journalists and vice versa. That would accomplish much, and thereby we could progressively educate' the people and .ensure a true spirit of co-operation." Lord Burnham said the suggestion which Mr. Bruce indicated had already been made. "We have not yet been able to cany it out, but I am persuaded it can be done if we have his inspiration on the Australian side as well as on our own."