LORD MILNER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 14070, 26 May 1906, Page 5

LORD MILNER.

A LONDON BANQUET. United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Rcceiycd May 26, 12.1 a-.m.) LONDON, May 25. Five hundred and fifty guests were present at a banquet to Lord Milner at the Hotel Cecil'. Hundreds, of applications were refused. .Ladies tnronged the balconies. It was a most representative gathering, including many peers, members of the House of Commons, commercial men, and others famous in science, literature and the professions. Mr Chamberlain, tfho presided, road cablegrams from Earl Grey, twentyeight members of the Canadian House of Commons, and all parts of South Africa, sympathising with the object of the banquet, and expressing gratitude for Lord Milner’s services to South Africa and the .Empire. Mr Chamberlain, in an elaborate eulogy, declared that Lord Milner was one of the great assets of the Empire. It was most unjust for the Liberals to pass an unmerited slight on a great public servant.

Lord Milner expressed gratitude for the manifestation of confidence and sympathy. He believed that there was a strong instinct in the heart of the nation to treat public servants with broad generosity, judge their work as a whole, and make allowance for their difficulties.

I yard C'irzon eloquently proposed “ Our Dominions Beyond the Seas.” He insisted that unless Britain was prepared to make sacrifices for the Empire, it was an Empire only in name.