SIR GEORGE REID IN LONDON.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13740, 23 May 1910, Page 6

SIR GEORGE REID IN LONDON.

Sir Georgo Reid has been only a little over two months in London, but that has been long enough for him tc show that his appointment was one- of the very best acts of tho Deakin Government. Before- Sir Georgo .was appointed Australia suffered grievously from inter-Stato jealousy, as reflected in tho operations of the various AgentsGencrnl, and from the want of scmeojje to speak authoritatively for the whole nation, and not merely for one of the States. In a few weeks the High Commissioner ; . has made himself the most prominent of all the London representatives of the overseas Dominions, and already some of the leeway that Australia had lost has been made up. BVom the first ho adopted a bold policy. Ho and his country must have England's attention; Canada had too long almost monopolised the field. But the attention of England is as difficult to secure as the attention of the. House of Commons, which refuses to listen to a speaker who is dull or pretentious. Sir George must have recognised how \ itally importa at it was to preserve a golden mean between dull statistics and mere after-dinner'banter, and while so\indin f ; a high nota of Imperialism and drawing attention to any shortcomings of British policy to which he could with propriety refer, to avoid any appearance of lecturing tho Old Country from a standpoint. of colonial superiority. This middle course he has kept to perfection. His almost daily' speeches have been an admirable .mixture of wit. eloquence, and appeals to high idefijs. .'As.an nftor-dinner. speaker, Sir Georgo has few suporiors, even in Vnglaqd, and more good work can be done fer a wantry's interests in* such speeches than in generally imagined. Tho attitudo of the London Press towards tho new High Commissioner is significant. ' Fleet Street finds plenty of good "copy" in him, and eveja when the Constitution is being shaken by tha winds of Radicalism, gives his views a prominent place. '"He is not ''one of your statistical bores," said a great man of the Press world,. in explanation of the amount of space given to the Australian High Commissioner's utterances. Humour and tact have won Sir George Reid the support of the Press, without which his campaign would have been in vain. Ho does no; disdain to make jokes about his own figure; he softens a reference to British. commercial methods by remarking that as ho has been in the country a fortnight, ho is, of course, in

a position to express an opinion "on tbe subject; lie can play with a sure tou'ih on the keys of Imperial sentiment. "May I suggest the dream of " supernatural ascendancy must be •' given up?" he said at a dinner given in his honour. "We had better (with "all reverence, be it said) give *• Divine Providence a rest and do •• something for ourselves." What could be finer than this?—"Thero come

■" to young Australia down the centuries "and. across the seas whispers of a " glorious past which fill her heart and "mtnd with Usougbtsof Ucr ai.cestral " home, and of kith and kin iii this '• distant realm —fill her heart and mind •' with thoughts of lought and

'battles won, with thoughta of liberties

'•' born in tho dying breath of patriot 'martyrs—liberties which brighten the

"whole face of the .vorld to-day with '•'the ever-incrcaMng splendour of their " achievements in the causo of human

freedom and progress, and in tho

;l cause of universal peace/ Bat, of cf ur.-c, tin George Roid has done a good deal more than mako after-dinner speeches. Ono can see in the Commonwealth OfPcc'3 forward policy tho hand of an energetic business man. Everything point? to his work in England of immense benolit to Australia.