AN IMPERIAL MISSION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15715, 7 September 1911, Page 6

AN IMPERIAL MISSION.

Tjie founders of the Imperial Mission, who are now extending their activities to the Commonwealth, may find some difficulty in making tho Australians understand the purely national character of their aspirations. Their ardent desire, they say, is to “lift Imperialism out of tho rut of party politics ’’ by creating a broad organisation which will be “a living and permanent factor in bringing the peoplo of all parts of our widely scattered Empire closer together.” They propose to work on “ entirely non-party Lines,” and they appeal to the overseas communities for sympathetic assistance. But the most important plank of the platform of the Mission is a proposal to “ placo before the people of tho Empire the benefits of Imperial solidarity in commerce and defence” and to show tho British nation that if it desires to buy its imported food within tho Empire tho dominions could provide everything that is wanted. Tho implied suggestions have more than a flavour of tariff reform propaganda, which cannot possibly bo separated from the party politics of the Mother Country, and it is a little unfortunate for the promoters that the office-bearers of tlio Mission nro all tariff reformers and Conservative?. Tlio chairman, Mr H. Pago Croft, M.P., a very capable man who well might have been selected for tho position on account of his personal popularity alone, is a member of the executive of tho Tariff Reform League and is oxpccted to mount very high in the ranks of his party. It will bo remembered, too, that the “ Imperial Pioneers,” whoso work led to tho formation of tho new organisation, made their appearance in tho heat of the last election campaign and advocated the policy of trade preference at tho moment when tho Conservatives were offering it as the alternative to tho Veto Bill. There is need, however, for tho wort of an Imperial Mission such as tho one over which Mr Page Croft presides, and if the two political parties can sink their material differences in a united effort to promote the prosperity and the safety of the nation thoy may go far together in tho realisation of tho highest ideals of patriot-