EMPIRE ABOVE PARTY

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 50, 27 August 1924, Page 5

EMPIRE ABOVE PARTY

MR. LLOYD GEORGE'S J APPEAL

OVERSEAS PRESSMEN ENTERTAINED

LORD BEAVER-BROOK'S TARTY,

(FROM OBR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON^ 14th July

Lord and Lady Beuverbrook entertained the visiting journalists lastpveek at a dinner in Queen's Hall. About 120 Canadians have been in England for aom'e time as a /single party, and the dinner was held on the eve-of their filial departure from London. addition, of course, the guests, included editors, proprietors, and other' newspaper men from the other Dominions, as well as Dominion representatives of distinguished people who have nothing to do with the" craft. Queen's Hall was spread with carpets, and seventy tables-were arranged in what is the auditorium of the concert hall. Six hundred guests were present. . A musical programme was in progress during'the dinner, and afterwards a male chorus and a Russian quartette gave selections. After the speeches the greater part of the hall was cleared, and a dance was held. The evening was a most cheerful and pleasant one. „ The chief guest was Mr.' Lloyd George, who had the task of proposing "The Press of the Empire." He.was in his best form, and'did great justice to his toast). It was more than an after-din-ner speech;\ The visitors, lie said, were welcome not as strangers within our gates but as comrades and kinsmen to the old hearthstone. They represented the Press of the greatest Empire in the world—it, was safe to say the greatest Jimpire the world had ever seen—greatest in the extent and expanse of its Dominions and dependencies; greatest in the population dwelling within"'its-vast bounds; greatest in the richness and variety of its. resources, and, he might add, in the variety <o f its climate j greatest beyond everything in the quality of the service it had rendered mankind. . "" • ■ '

Of no other Empire that ever existed could it! be^ Claimed that for centuries it had used its might arid strength to rescue human liberty from peril, and to establish human right .where it was assailed. Within four centuries the "British Empire had four' times risked its existence in order to protect menaced right and-.freedom, beyond'its own frontiers* it was the' great Empire of fair ■play in world affairs.

. The ■ Press,, continued Mr. Lloyd George, constitute the tribunes of this great Empire, ' and, I may add, its lictors. They carry the big sticks. > Their steadiness and their steadfastness" inspir.ed.and sustained the greatest effort this Empire has yet put forth. In the great .World. War, without their unwearying support,-even the indomitable spirit ■of the brave peoples who constitute this mighty Commonwealth might haive flagged snd failed. In no part of the Empire was their power and devotion more helpful than in . the great Dominions. . . ' ' • .

■■• WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN. - , No, we have not forgotten what our partners in Empire meant to us and.did for us;in the day of.trial, when, in the sacred cause of humanity. and honour, wo accepted a challenge, the most,-, formidable ever hurled at our. heads in the whole history of this fateful land. We/ have not forgotten. Wo are not a demonstrative people. We are commonly reputed to' be. phlegmatic. We are certainly not as effusive as the nations who forgot, as soon as danger was driven from their doors—no, from their very hearths —those without whose help, they would have perished. We are mindful; w e are grateful. „'.-..» . I remember the anxious time when the armies,.of three'.of-trie Allies were completely broken and'dispersed, the fourth overwhelmed , wi/th a great disaster; I'ranee thoroughly exhausted, and her army forced to rest; Britain almost'at the end of her man-power, and America .without a regiment in-the trenches. What could we have done if the hundreds of thousands of brave men from Canada^ Australia, South' Africa, New Zealand, and Newfoundland had not been.with us in France^or available to reinforce those who were, already there; and the hundreds of thousands of. gallant sons 01 India had not been there.to help us in ths East? ■ ; ■ EMPIRE'S INFINITE POSSIBILI- .■•■.-.; TIES, / ■". ■ Europe is not as .satisfactory as it might be even now, but it is steadily improving. Let those who are discontented with the progress made just imagine what, the■ conditions' of Europe would haye -been like to-day if the . Allies had been overthrown and Prussian militarism had/been enthroned on that Conti--nenfc. The ground covered by. democracy in its notable advance in the nineteenth century towards the era of enlightened • freedom would have- been lost,"and we should have been flung back bruised and broken into the age of selfish force. If. has happened/before in. the history of the world, when violence and barbarism triumphed over ordered progress. The British Empire made it possible. for humanity, to avert that catastrophe.' The title of the Dominions to natjoris hood was won in rendering the greatest service to mankind' ever achieved by any young people in history, and on tiiuV record the old nations of the earth as- ; sembled at "Versailles gladly admitted these heroic young nations,into their m- ( dieiit and honourable fraternity. Tho fireafc War was a, revelation of the infinite possibilities of the British Empire . It forced eyes that had barely glanced , ah its vastness to. dwell upon it \vilh , ninagement, with understanding, arid . with hope. The prospect in front of tho , British Empire staggers- the imagination ' It is not a dream: it is a purely-arith- : nieticnt calculation. In owlea- to under- \ stand what this gigantic commonwealth , oE nations lias before it, you need not. , take the pen of the poet or tho brush ,_ of the painter; the humble pencil of tho .\ reckoner, is enough.. What its capabill \ties are to-day the. world has been .. taught in the sternest oE all schools— ; . -that of war. What its possibilities are , for,to-morrow any man'can calculate for himself. But to realise all these possibilities one must also study, and con>- ■ prehend thoroughly, candidly, and fear- . lessly its limitations and dangers.

BASIS OF UNITY.

They consist "in the immense distances which' have to be traversed by the boncl? of/union, for opart from the immensity of its territories there is thr. further fact that they arc scattered in every edntinotlt. «vevy ocean, every hemisphere,' and every zone. They consist, also in tlv variety of its races, creeds, traditions., and interests. '■The task o{ the true be Hevei- in the policy of consolidation la to assist in minimising all/these- tlUMc.ulties so as to knit the Empire more closely together. On a recent occasion I went to the extent of voting against my own party on mi 'Imperial-issue submitted to the British Parliament. That does not blind

nie to jbhe danger of seeking unity on the basis ol a controversial issue, and my fervent appeal to all loyal sons of the Empire is this : That unity between the various parts of the Empire should be sought along lines which do not promote discord inside a single province of theEmpire. There are in all the provinces ot the Eniplro, including Britain, internal issues which provoke controversy, some economic, some historical, some racial or -religious. If ' possible,, unity must not be sought along lines /which rouse any of these controversies, traverse any of these issue's or offend any of these susceptibilities.

. The- British Empire, concluded Mr. Lloyd George, was worthy of«our best, urir most sustained, and our most, chivalrous endeavour. 'Hie Press could secure the triumph of tbjs noble ideal of a. United Empire or free nations, which should, be the watch-tower, and citadel of peace, liberty, and fair play m the worM. . . '

Some of the guests present were the Earl of Birkenhead, Sir Harry Brittain, Lord Burnham, Mr. Winston Churchill, Sir Joseph Cook, Sir Hugh Demson, Sir Hamar Greenwood Sir. Robert Home, Sir W. Joynson-Hicks, and Mr. H. G. Wells. ■ . . ' • .

Aniongst the invited guests who have a. New Zealand connection were Sir George and Lady Fenwick; Mr. and Mrs. .J. H. Delamore, Mr.. T. List, Miss A. E. Evans, Mr.' and Mrs. T. J. Pemberton. . - .