EMPIRE'S DESTINY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14133, 7 August 1909, Page 5

EMPIRE'S DESTINY.

THE PROBLEM OF DEFENCE.

TIES OF HONOUR.

STRONGER THAN THOSE OF

BLOOD.

By Telegraph.— Association.—

(Received August 7, 12.20 a.m.)

London, August 6. The United Service Club entertained the delegates to the' Imperial Defence Conference at dinner last evening.

Sir F. Borden, Canadian Minister for Militia, replying to a toast, said that a few years ago the Canadian forces were a disorganised mob. They could now put 50,000 into the field, and another 50,000 in a few weeks. Canada was going to do her duty with the navy, for which they were beginning at once to lay the foundation. In case of trouble she would join in helping to maintain the Empire, and would give all the money she could get, and help with men to man the fleet.

Colonel Foxton, the Australian delegate, said the great bulk of the electors of Australia had come round to the view that the real defence of Australia * would not be in! ' their waters, but that the crucial test might be fought many thousands of miles away from their shores. Australia Was prepared to fall in- line with any suggestion which might be made by the Imperial authorities. They hoped to maintain a standard which "would bear a fair comparison with the standard of the British navy, so that when the time came their union of ships might be found capable of taking its fair share of the burdens which might. be thrown upon Australia as an integral portion of the Empire. They in Australia claimed that blood was thicker than water, and realised that the Empire consisted of: people of one flag, and that there was one destiny for them all.

Ex-General Smuts (Colonial Secretary of the Transvaal) said it was true that blood was thicker than water, yet =in another sense there was something that was thicker than blood. The tie of honour was even greater and stronger. He hoped as time went on it would be more and more realised that it was not the tie of blood which held them together, but the tie of community of interests, of justice, of fair play, and equality. When they saw the wonderful naval display at Spithead they did not forget that in the last resort it was not machinery, or honour, or cold steel which told in a struggle, but nerve.