A UNIONIST BANQUET.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 20 April 1907, Page 3

A UNIONIST BANQUET.

■ LONDON, Friday. The Unionist banquet to the Colonial / " Premiers at the Albert HaU' was. a co- ,. tossd. function, four thousand being IBOS sat down .to dinner, the largest number on record for Lon-aon£7'-"A.sp.eci_il floor was laid, design-ed-..t0 represent the- Union" Jack, and '^■-jih^canopyabo.vowasfnned of the Imperial crown ..with' red, white and. blue gay^ds-;.stretchinig-frpm the crown tb of -arms of Hhe colonies. Madame Clara Butt sang the National Anthem, and -Arthur Boyd. ''God Bless the Prince .-of "Wales." •" The nation's guests, and all prominent Unionists the7 Marquis of Linlithgow, " and the ■"' Agents-General were, present. Mr Joseph Chamberlain . wrote, saying he was convinced the' lmperial Conference would mark another step in the union of the Empire. Thii development they owed^- more to the sister States than to themselves. He predicted that BritainTwould hot- long 7 'shrink froin. ihe only method of giving effect to. the movement^;.. ,7 -^ Mr Balfour presided, and in pfopos- -.. ing "Our Guests, "emphasised that,. Britain and _the' : colonies weiier maknig "an audacious yet hopeful : experiment in ; the direction of binding into one Em- ■ pire communities unhampered and nntrammeled in J^Bevlyy. and. freedom. ' Their Governments;. were a true parallel to a fami'yj^noif^an alliance or a partisanship.- . with reasons why therealisatio'n o'f- that ideal should be permanent., 7 7