COLONIAL PREMIERS AT HOME.

Evening Star, Issue 12687, 13 June 1907, Page 8

COLONIAL PREMIERS AT HOME.

[From Our Special Correspokuent.j LONDON, May 3, Sir Joseph Ward has had another very exacting week. In addition to aB the Conference work and consultations with various departments, he is going through as many as five or six functions a day. stall, ho is in splendid health, and looks none the worse for the extraordinary amount of work that ho has put in. The list of public dinners and luncheons he has attended in the course of the week looks long enough to ruin any man's digestion, but I have noticed that the New Zealand Premier “ skins ” most of the courses on the menu, and drinks nothing but Apollinaris. Otherwise, I should imagine he would have been by now a martyr to chronic dyspepsia. As regards the business side of Sir Jceeph Ward’s visit to London, a gentleman occupying one of tho highest positions in England stated recently that the New Zealand Premier was improving his position every day since he arrived in London, and was regarded at both the Navigation Conference and Imperial Conference as one fuß of knowledge of the subjects that he was dealing with. His all-round capacity was a matter of favorable comment.

Sir Joseph Ward has been invited to receive the LL.D. degree of the Dublin University, and the Freedom of the cities of Edinburgh, Manchester, and Bristol. Ho goes to Scotland on the night of the 9th May with Lady Ward, for the purpose of launching the Union Steam Ship Company’s new steamer Maori. Sir Joseph and Lady Wand wore present on Friday evening at a theatrical supper party given by Sir Charles and Lady Wyndham at the Hydo Park Hotel in honor of the colonial Premiers. A large suite of rooms in the hotel was set apart, and beautifully decorated for the oocaskm, There were flowers overvwhere. Great masses of crimson rambler roses twined round the balustrade of tho staircase, and clustered over the electric light standards, and the recesses of tho windows and the corners of the lobby and reception room were filled with huge banks of roses, hydrangeas, carnations, and picotees. In the supper room big baskets of lovely pink roses occupied the centre of each table, for the guests, instead of being gathered round one long board, were grouped round tables, at none of which were the numbers more than the Muses, so that conversation at each was easy and general. The guests, of whom about ISO were present, began to assemble shortly before twelve o’clock. Nearly every" prominent figure in tho brilliant group gathered round the distinguished hcets. There were no set speeches, but Sir Charles Wyndham, in a brief but very felicitous little address, proposed tho health and prosperity of the self-govern-ing colonies and their Premiers. After extending tho heartiest of greetings to his guests. Sir Charles remarked that a great French actor once boasted that he had played before a pitful of kings. That was nothing compared with tho historic drama now being enacted in London by a company which had been gathered from the ends of the earth—a drama full of meaning, strong in its situations, and farreaching in its apoeals to the heart of mankind. Sir Wilfrid Laurior, in his reply, said he had made su many speeches latolv that he did not like any longer to hear the sound of his own voice. He was very grateful for tho kind greetings which liad been extended to his fellowPremiers and himself. Sir Joseph Word also replied, and extended a very cordial invitation to his hosts to visit New Zealand. The luncheon which the colomal-bom members of the House of Commons gave to the colonial Premiers on Tuesday was entirelv private. All the Premiers ■ and Ministers now in London, with the exception of Dr Jameson, accepted invitations. Dr Macnamara, Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board, who was bom in Canada, presided, and fifteen other M.Pn were hosts on the occasion. They were Sir J. Lawson Walton (Ceylon), Mr Bonar Law, Mr C. D. Rose, Sir Gilbert Parker, Mr Allan Baker, Dir Foreter Boulton, and Mr Hamar Greenwood (Canada), Colonel Kenyon Slanev (India), Mr H. C. Brodie (British Columbia), Mr C. J. O’Donnell (Mauritius). Mr C. S. Henry (Australia), Mr A Fell 'New Zealand). Mr Carlyon Bellaire (Gibraltar), Mr P. A. Molteno, and Mr A. Cedi Beck (South Africa). Sir Joseph Ward spoke at the annual meeting of the Victoria League at tho Imperial Institute on Wednesday. By reason of the large number of ladies_ present that meeting, he said, reminded him more of a New Zealand meeting than any gathering of the kind h© had yet attended in London. But for the fact that ho must keen clear of politics, he would have liked to say something of tho way in which the women of Zealand had exercised tho franchise, Sir Joseph went on to refer to the teaching of the. Empire's history in New Zealand. The school children there had an opportunity of saluting the British flag evdiy day of their

lives, and the boys were taught to nee a rifle, so that they might be able, if occasion demanded, to take their part in tha defence of the glorious flag of which they were all so proud. If the colonial Premiers are living at high pressure just now, so, too, are their private secretaries. Said one of them to me the other day, in the plaintive tones of a broken man : “ This is lulling work. The strain is terrible. I am working np till ono and two o’clock in the morning, and up again at eight to wrestle with another mass of correspondence. If I stop it is to climb into a dress suit or a frock coat and rush off to some crowded function, then back to the letters again. I answered 169 letters yesterday—l think that’s my record so far. I haven’t been able to put a question to my chief for days—he's kept so desperately busy. I have a list as long as your arm of people wanting to see him, but Ive had to put them all off. He hasn’t a minute to himself, and the appointments ho makes he cannot keep. And he has always been noted for keeping his appointments hitherto. But here in London it’s impossible. What with the Conference meetings, the subsidiary conferences, the consultations with heads of departments, the endless programme of social functions, the correspondence and despatches to deal with, he doesn’t know what leisure means these days; and neither do I. I feel I should like to be able to sleep for a week on end. Yesterday, when turning up a notebook to answer some question, I dropped off to sleep, and for fully fifteen seconds I was dead to the world ! I would have been sleeping still if the gentleman who put the question hadn’t got up to go just then, and so wakened me. Yes, it’s kißing work. Tho fact is I—er—l-——” The plaintive voice sank to a murmur, and then stopped. The secretary’s head drooped forward. Ho was fast asleep! I hadn’t the heart to awaken the poor follow, so I covered him up in the tablecloth and left him alone to his snoring.

Imaginary telegrams of regret from missing guests were read by Mr Walter Emanuel (the writer of ‘ Charivari ’ in ‘ Punch ') at the annual dinner of the London Sketch Club last Monday night. Here is, a selection - Canadian Premier ; Regret full up. The Niagara Gorge is a poor affair to what I have gone through.—Laurier. Transvaal Premier : Thanks; but if I were a Double Dutchman I could not take a bite more. —Botha. Australian Premier : Fear the short road that loads from hospitality to hospital. Even to an Australian the ’eat is terrific.—Deakin. Newfoundland Premier ; Do not insist on your—Bond. Cape Colony Premier : I dare not come to your (r)aid. —Jameson. Russian Premier : Thanks, bnt am too busy trying to prevent Duma fils going the way of Duma pere. Mr Labouchere, in this week’s ‘Truth,’ describes the impressions of the colonial Premiers, which ho has gathered from listening to their speeches at various public functions. He thinks that General Botha, who has become the lion of the party, is the least impressive as a speaker, not because ho addresses his audience through an interpreter, but for the simple reason that he is obviously a man of few words. “As is generally the case with men of action,” says Mr Labouchere, “ his few words are invariably direct to the point, and no one who hears him will ever doubt that he means what he says. He has a most captivating manner, especially when he smiles, and you need not be long in his company to learn that he is the sort of man whom it is better to have for a friend than an euemy. Sir Wilfrid Laurier is the most attractive speaker among the visitors, as well as the most picturesque figure. His speech, manner, and appearance aro suggestive of a French abbe who has been dumped in the States and acquired a slight American varnish. Sir Joseph Ward, on the other hand, might have been reared on the Stock Exchange. He is terse, business-like, and seems immersed in affairs. Of the whole party the one who approaches most closely our idea of a democratic politician is Mr Deakin. He has all the qualities that go to make a successful platform speaker in this country—not gaseous or flowery, hut fluent and forcible, never at a loss for a word, always using the right one, very clear and definite in statement, a trifle dogmatic, with jnst the right amount of feeling or sentiment to command sympathy, and now and then, a touch of real eloquence. I should Judge Mr Deakin to be a nasty adversary to tackle in debate, and that he is not without some of the qualities which put Mr Chamberlain in the forefront of politics. Of all our visitors he is the one who seems most impressed with the importance of his mission, and most desirous of teaching the Mother Country how to run an Empire. But each' of the English-speaking Premiers is, I should say, convinced that his own State occupies the, first place in the family circle. This is natural, not to say becoming. I do not suggest that any of them overdo it, but Sir Wilfrid Laurier is the nicest about it.” There is a colonial breeziness about Sir Wilfrid Laurier's telegrams to his Govern ment which is refreshing. At the close of the Canadian session this week the members of the Government party despatched a cable message to London extending good wishes to Sir Wilfrid and Lady Laurier, The Canadian Premier replied thus s “ Most cordial thanks to the boys. Everything going well here,” The wording is interesting, because it contrasts the goodfellowship existing between a colonial Premier and his party with the aloofness which marks the relations between an English party leader and his supporters in the House. No one oouki - possibly imagine “C.8.” or Mr Balfour referruno- to tbe-r followers as “the boys”!