PRESS AND EMPIRE

Gisborne Times, Volume LIII, Issue 5533, 15 July 1920, Page 5

PRESS AND EMPIRE

OVERSEA DELEGATES WELCOMED TO LONDON.

IMPORTANCE OF PENDING CON-

GRESS IN CANADA

VALUE OF THE i:my CONFERENCE.

United Press Association—Copyright (Received July 14, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON,* July 13. Lord Burnham gave a luncheon at the Savoy to prominent British journalists, who are delegates to tlie Empire Press Union Conference in Canada., in. order to welcome the oversea delegates to the conference. Among them were Messrs H. Horton and P. Selig, of New Zealand, and Messrs Lovekin, Lunglev, Jeffrey, Lansell and Kirwan. Lord Burnham, iu welcoming tlie delegates, recalled the service tlie 1909 conference had rendered to the Empire and trusted the results of the 1920 conference would be no less valuable.

Mr Kirwan, responding, said that it was due to the 1909 conference that the journalists got a full understanding of the Empire, which had proved so vitally important during the war. Mr Selig recalled New Zealand's service during the war in raising an army io help to fight the Empire's battles. The visit of the New Zealand delegates in 1909 had had an important, effect in persuading the New Zealand Press to adopt a more Imperial tone. Colonel Amery (Under-Secretary for the Colonies) said that when tlie storm burst iu 1914 every village in the Empire knew what tlie real issue was. This was only possible because the Press of the Empire knew why sacrifice must be made, and what sacrifice must be made. The Canadian conference would deal with problems of reconstruction, such as distribution of Imperial man-power. It was significant that, in this new phase, tlie conference was meeting in Canada, as the reconstruction problems must .largely be settled and worked out in the Dominions. The meeting in Canada would get us all away from tlie idea that England was tlie centre of the Empire. This was no longer true. All parts of the Empire were now centres fpr their own purpose. The best basis ot tlie true Imperial issue was the full knowledge and sympathy of every part for the whole. —A. and N.Z.C.A.