GAIN, NOT SACRIFICES.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 4524, 24 February 1922, Page 1

GAIN, NOT SACRIFICES.

THE ARMAMENTS REDUCTION. VALUE TO THE NATIONS. , (By Electric Cable-Copyright.) (Aust.-N.Z. Cable Association.) London, Eeb. 21. The Duke of York attended u Pilgrims' dinner given ill honour of Mr A. J. Bel fa ur. The American Ambassador, Colonel G.-Harvey, proposed the health of Mr Balfour. Lord Curzoii said that with a stroke of the pen the Washington Conference had reduced the British Budget by .1115.000,000. Mr Balfour had wielded t(ie economy axe with a mtlilessness that might bring tears to the eyes of Sir Erie Geddes.

Colonel Harvey, in a striking speech, which was loudly applauded, said that much had been said about sacrifices by various Bowers. The United States, however, had made no sacrifices, not one. She had scrapped many costly battleships, abandoned vast projects of fortifications, and sniffed at the false pride of becoming the first naval Bower. She had snuffed out what was left of lier great army, but all these doings involved no sacrifices. They tonstituted a boon. They reduced taxes, released millions of money, and transferred brawn and skill from iloating slaughter houses to shops and factories for building homes and schools. Ear from entailing loss and sacrifices, they produced only gain to ourselves and the world. The greatest achievement ol the Conference was the revelation ol Britain to America and America to Britain. Mr Balfour was prevented from speaking for some time by the cheering. He paid a tribute to the work of the Dominion representatives, and declared that the accomplishments oi the Conference, were immense. Me did not agree with the critics that some of the transactions of the Conference were inimical to the League of Nations. The League could not have dune what the Conference had done. The Conference had not only advantaged the world’s peoples, but had created a new bond of afleetion and regard between Britain and America.