COLONIAL PREMIERS AT HOME

Hastings Standard, Issue 370, 12 July 1897, Page 3

COLONIAL PREMIERS AT HOME

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BANQUET. MR RE ID SPEAKS OUT. (Pf»- Tress Association. —Copyright.) London, July 10. The colonial Premiers were entertained at a banquet by the Chamber of Commerce, 2->0 guests being present. Sir John Forrest, in proposing the toast of the Defensive Forces, said if the colonies wanted a voice in the control of the destinies of the Empire they must bear a share of its responsibilities. Mr Reid stated that Sir John Forrest's views did not represent the sentiments of Australia when he said they were anxious to join in a partnership to be called Imperial Federation ; the term was a beautiful one, like Mesopotamia. The Australians were accustomed to manage their own affairs, and were not likely to become a joint in the Imperial tail. They gloried in their equality with the English people, and any attempt to bring them back to an insignificant position and make them an indefinite and minor quantity of the Empire would never succeed. Commercial ties really bound the colonies and the Motherland. He urged them to abandon the idea of meeting foreign competition by fiscal strategy: the moment they erected a barricade for England her commercial supremacy would be destroyed. Englishmen need not be anxious for closer ties; sometimes the greater number of ties was the most inksome, because neither the Governor, the Throne, nor the high institutions were bound like companies but by the same blood, the same history, the same traditions, and the same future. Sir E. C. N. Braddon said he had always favored Imperial Federation with representation in the British Parliament. He did not agree with Mr Reid's speech, which was pitched in a minor key. He believed the colonies would take a higher view and effect the closest possible union. Mr R. J. Seddon joined issue with Mr Reid, but endorsed the remarks of Sir John Forrest and Sir E. C. N. Braddon. VISITS TO NOTABLE PLACES AND PERSONAGES. SIR G. TURNER LEAVES FOR VICTORIA. London, July 11. The colonial Premiers, Bishops, Agents-General, Judges, and military officers were preseut yesterday at a garden party given by Baroness Bur-dett-Coutts. . a ball given by the Brii League at the Hotel Cecil in the evening. Sir W, Laurier and the Right Hons. R. J. Seddon and G. Reid visited Eton Hall, the seat of the Duke of Westminister at Chester and Hawarden Castle. At Hawarden they had tea with Mrs Gladstone. Baron Ferdinand Rothschild entertained the other Premiers at Waddeson. bis seat at Aylesbury. Sir George and Lady Turner have embarked on their return to Victoria.