IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9009, 23 March 1888, Page 5

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

SPEECHES OF LORDS ROSEBERY, BRASSEY, AND STANLEY. [press association.] London, March 22. Lord Rosebery, presiding at a meeting of the Federation League, stated that the Defence Committee, of which Lord Brassey had been elected president, would shortly make a report to the League. Lord Rosebery urged the importance of securing the safety of colonial interests in the event of war, and thought it more important at the present juncture to cultivate the sympathy of colonial arms than to give colonists seats in the British Parliament. He thought it would be difficult for any man to say whether, within the next decade, home or colonial influence would predominate in the British Empire. Lord Brassey, in the course of a speech on the occasion, said that during his recent tour of the Australian colonies he had conversed with the leading public men of Australia on the aims and objects of the Federation League, and that he had been assured by Mr. Gillies and Mr. Deakin, Premier and Chief Secretary respectively of Victoria, that colonial Ministers approved of'tha policy of the League. Lord Stanley also spoke, and strongly advocated the desirableness of giving the colonies direct representation in the British Parliament.