A LIMELIGHT ARTIST.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 September 1924, Page 5

A LIMELIGHT ARTIST.

CHURCHILL AND “WISE COUNSELS.” ANOTHER ‘ ‘FIGHTING” SPEECH. UY CABLE- PRESS ASSOCIATION—COP if RIGHT LONDON, Sept. 26. Lord Balfour, Sir Robert Horne and Mr Winston Churchill were present, onthe same platform at a meeting of the official Conservative Party under the auspices of the Edinburgh branch. Mr Churchill, in a fighting speech, predicted a general election m a few months, possmly in a few weeks. Referring to the Irish situation, he said he was astonished at the Free State leaders insisting that an Imperial commissioner by his casting vote should demarcate the. boundary which would constitute the real foreign frontier, making an unbridgeable, gulf between Ulster and the South. -Mr Churchill trusted that wiser counsels would prevail, and that a settlement would be reached betweeii Irishmen . themselves, which would allow hatreds to subside and common interests to grow without marring for many i generations the hopes the signatories of the treaty had in view.

Mr Churchill delivered a speech strongly Imperial in tone. Alluding to preference, Mr Churchill recalled that at the height of the war the leading statesmen of the Dominions sat in conference with the British Cabinet, in which Conservatives, Liberals, and Labour were represented, and a resolution was passed unanimously affirming the principle of /preferential duties with the Empire wherever possible. Now it was aggressively repudiated by the Socialist Government.

“The war is over and we no longer need 500,000 Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans to hold the line of France,” he added, “but it is unworthy of a great country to recede from an undertaking given to faithful and valiant friends.” Regarding Singapore, the Socialist Government made it impossible for the British Navy to enter the Pacific and consequently afford the slightest assistance to Australia and New Zealand, however terrible their need. Australia and New Zealand had been told, in effect, that they must shift for selves, yet the. Socialists would gladly hawk the British Navy round Europe to be the drudge of an international organisation . and fight every quarrel but its own. '

He contrasted the Government’s attitude towards the Dominions with their proposal to subsidise .‘Russia —one bf wors fc tyrannies in the world. Those who deserted us in war received smiles, compliments, caresses and cash, and on the contrary Canada,- Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, who sent thousands of unflinching fighters, got nothing but frigid indifference, aversion .and neglect. (Cheers.) The Conservative leaders, had definitely announced that the tariff was excluded from their platform at the next electsll; and had stated again 'and again that- they, would not ,tax staple foods. It ■ was absurd for the Liberals to continue the fiscal controversy.