STRENUOUS TIME

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 27 August 1927, Page 5

STRENUOUS TIME

MR BALDWIN IN CANADA. THE DOMINION’S PROBLEMS. MEN AND| MONEY NEEDED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Aug. 24. The Prime Minister and Mrs. Baldwin arrived at Southampton this afternoon in the liner impress of Scotland from their Canadian tour. Both spoke very highly of the way they had been received in Canada. Addressing Press representatives, the Prime Minister said: “I have had a very -strenuous time, hut it has been a very wonderful experience, and I have enjoyed every minute of it. It is just 32 days since we sailed from Southampton. In that time we have travelled by steamer and train and motor car nearly 11,000 miles, an average of 340 miles a day. “During the 19 days we were actually, in Canada we visited all her nine provinces, and you must 'rememlrer that one Canadian province may be three times the .size of the whole of the British Isles. In those 19 days I made 26 public speeches. I mention speeches in case there is an impression that I have been having a. holiday.

“In some ways my visit was exceptional. It was a privilege to. travel with the Prince of AYales and Prince George, than whom I could wish no better travelling companions. Tben it was the first time the Prime Minister of Great Britain had visited one of the Dominions during his term of office'.”

Speaking of the agricultural and mineral possibilities of Canada, the Prime Minister said: “They are, humanly speaking;, unlimited, yet in spite of some thickly populated areas and great manufacturing cities, such ash Montreal and Toronto, there are over the whole Dominion onlv three people to the square mile. Then'you will been’n to see whv Canada’s problem is so different from our own. I did not hear of any serious problem in the relations between Capital and Labour over there. Canada- has plentv of elbow room for both : she needs both men and money. We have got to find the means of bringing the willing hands and the open spaces together.” CA NADI AN CHARACTERISTICS.

The Prime Minister added: “If I may mention one or two striking characteristics of the Canadian people—the open-hearted- welcome they give the visitor from the Old Country, their keenness to hear, and to hear sympathetically, about our probems and the wav we are fighting through them and solving them, and their vigorous optimism about their own future, and their confidence in the future and the stability of Great Britain and the British Empire.”

“I am certain,” concluded Mr. Baldwin, “that I do not interpret the spirit of Canada amiss if I say that the message the Canadian people gave me to bring home is one of faith and hope and affection —faith in our common traditions and methods of government, hope for the future, economic and political, of the British Empire, and affection for the British people and for the Throne to which Canada and all membens of the British Commonwealth of Nations owe allegiance.” Commenting on the Canadian tour, “The Times” says that the visit by general consent has been a signal success. It- was regarded as particularly welcome for the reasoned optimism which marked Mr. Baldwin’s ac'ount of the- Old Country, and continues :

“Many things in Canada conspire to point a pessimistic picture of the life in Great- Britain. Mr. Balwwin took particular pains to remove misconception, s, which he was better placed than any other man to remove, about unemployment in Great Britain. In the tribute he paid to the patience and fortitude which generally characterised the unemployed, be had been doing a real service, of which English men going to Canada in the humblest positions were likely to reap the benefit-. He illustrated repentedlv the temper of Great Britain, -and. while he had not minimised the troubles due to the new state of the world, he made it very plain that commiseration from jjoross the water on the plight of GreT,+ Britain is a habit which can he carried to excess.”

MESSAGE TO CANADA. Mr. Baldwin has addressed the. following telegram to the Prime Minister of Canada: “I am deeply indebted for the generous welcome and unbounded hospitality given to -Mrs. Baldwin and myself, and to all my party, in Canada during three happy and memorable weeks. Ajs my first act on returning to London I should -like to express to you again, and through you to your colleagues in the Government, to everyone who helped us, and, indeed, to all Canada, my most sincere and heartfelt thanks. It is a special pleasure to feel that, through the membership of His Majesty’s Privy Council for Canada with which I have been honoured, I shall have henceforward a permanent association with the fortunes and future of the Dominion. “I came to Canada with two thoughts uppermost in my mind. The first was to endeavour to interpret the spirit of Great Britain. If I have in anv way succeeded I shall be proud indeed. The second- was to learn all I could of Canada so that I might, when I returned, help in some measure to interpret her to my countrymen. That task is for the dnvs which are coming. I have done my best- to learn. I can send no better wish to Canada than that when next a Prime Minister -of Great Britain visits her he mav find the same spirit and same optimism as T have fo”nd in this rear of the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation.”