GUILDHALL BANQUET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14835, 11 November 1911, Page 7

GUILDHALL BANQUET.

MR. ASQUITH ON EMPIRE.

POLICY OF CO-OPERATION.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS OUTLOOK.

By Telegraph Press Association, Copyright (Received November 10, 11 p.m.) London, November 10. At the Lord .Mayor's dinner at the Guildhall Sir Thomas Crossby (Lord Mayor) presided over a brilliant assemblage.

The Prime Minister, Mr. Asquith, said it was a happy coincidence that the Coronation year witnessed a conference wherein the representatives of the great Dominions had been admitted to full confidence in the aims and methods of foreign policy. Having surveyed together the strategic aspects of the Empire they were able to come to a complete agreement concerning the reciprocal parts each of them should take in its naval and military defiance. The conference marked a significant advance in the policy of co-operation without centralisation, which was being increasingly recognised as the best safeguards of our Imperial unity and strength.

He regretted that in conflicts between Labour and Capital sometimes leaders sought barbarous methods of industrial warfare. He said " barbarous" advisedly, for war was a cruel form of arbitrament in the economic, not less than in the international sphere. He believed that all such disputes were capable of reasonable adjustment. He referred to the trouble in China, and the possibility of Britain acting as mediator between Italy and Turkey.