" Gentlemen, the Press! "

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 893, 1 June 1909, Page 2

" Gentlemen, the Press ! "

It was flashed yesterday across the cables that gird the earth that the New Zealand, Australian, and. Canadian pressmen who have gone to ( England to attend .an Imperal Press Conference had arrved at Liverpool. We have had indications of the tmir through Canada that was almost royal, and throughout this month wo will be told over the cables how mag. nificontly those delegates are being treated in the Motherland. Tho story of the coming Conference is one of the. most notable things in modern times. It was suggested some time ago that tho editors of Britain's empire overseas did not know ; the Motherland as it should be ■ known. The men of might and money in Newspaper Kow., London, therefore decided to invite a group of roprotontative editors to "como Home." 'When the list was made out, -with proportional representation for each colony, State, and Dominion, it Mas | found to contain eighty names, in- , eluding eight from New Zealand. ! There were no half-measures about those English hosts. The Harmsnorths and Walters and Pearsons ami Glenesks pooled .their thousands in | such generous mood that the eighty j guests from India, Africa, and other parts of the Empire have their passagos paid and" all expenses from the time- they leave home until they return again to ( their desks. The New Zealanders, for instance, went passage paid from Auckland, Wellington, ChristclmrcK, and Dunedin, over to Australia, through. Canada, and across the Atlantic to London. In England they will be put up at the best hotels, travel by rail and motorcar, stay at the country houses of the bluest-blooded aristocrats in Great Britain— and all the time tho only out-of-pookets expenses will be "tips" to servants. Was ever such liberality known before ! They are to be> the guests of even the King and the Prince of Wales at garden parties, the Channel fleet is to turn out for the instruction of the pressmen, lords and commoners will fete them, the military will review before them, the best speakers in the Kingdom will orate for them, dukes and duchesses will give receptions in tlieir .honour, Liberal and Conservative statesmen will do them honour, and the- people of the land will crowd -around and gaze upon these men who have proved the world over that the pen is mightier than the sword. ' Tho visit will be a great thing for the fortunate pressmen, and it will mean -much to tho British Empire. "Gentlemen, tho Press!''