PARLIAMENTARY INVITATIONS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14099, 19 July 1911, Page 7

PARLIAMENTARY INVITATIONS.

;—« ..j' STATEMENT BY SIR JOSEPH WARD. • ' i (ntou omt own corbesponbbnt.) LONDON, June 9. Sir Joseph Ward, in reply to a question which I put to him to-day regarding the invitations to the Parliaments to send delegates as guests to London, bore out the statement of the position which I was able to send out some weeks ago. Sir Joseph _aid he could reiterate hi * previous statement that he had nbt re- . ceived an invitation of any sort or j kind until the day before he gave it j out, by telegraph, to every member of j the Houbo of Representatives. The re-1 plies he received from them then were that it was too Into to do anything. "As a matter of fact," he continued, j " I had previously received communica- I tions from the Old Country with regard i to the. possibility of invitations being 1 sent, but they were marked 'Secret.' I specially requested the Home Government by cabie to give mc permission to make a statement to the House oi the lines indicated in the telrgram, but, .the request wae declined on the ground that the Home Government was not in a position to say definitely whether the invitations would be sent or not. ' There was no definite invitation from the Colonial Office, or anybody e.Ve, before Parliament rose, or I should, of j course, have made a statement to the Ho'ise on the subject." j i , Sir Joseph says that nothing would 'have pleased him better than that both Houses of Parliament should hnve. been represented, and he believes that if ths invitations had come enrly enough they ; [ could have sent the full number in-j j vited, viz., eight. i