EMPIRE PRESS UNION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19265, 2 March 1926, Page 11

EMPIRE PRESS UNION.

DELEGATUS' RETURN HOME. VIEWS REGARDING THE TOUR. SOLIDARITY OF DOMINIONS, [FSOM ont OWN coueespokdent-3 LONDON, Jan. 26. Practically all tho delegates who took part; in tho third Imperial Press Conference were present at the dinner arranged in their honour by the Empire Press Union. Sir Robert Donald was in the chair. All the travellers are very enthusiastic about their tour —with the countries visited and with the reception everywhere accorded them. There was no fly in tho ointment —not even a complaint about tho weather! Altogether, more than 140 people were present at tho Savoy Hotel last, evening, and they were representative of tho countries visited by the delegation. Lord and lady Burnham returned soon after Christmas. Sir liarry Brittain came back a week ago, and had a great reception from his constituents at Acton—not alone of his own party, but of others as well —while Lord and Lady Newnes arrived from India the night before last in time to attend the function. It was a very friendly occasion. Mr. L. C. M. S. Amery and Mr. J. H. Thomas, respectively the present and late Secretary oi State for the Dominions, were responsible for many flashes of humour in the after, dinner speeches. Mr. Thomas has probably made history, for he was unavoidably late in arriving, and ho had to attend in his workaday suit; apparently not having the orthodox white shirt beneath, he had no cuff upon which to make his notes, so he wrote them upon the section of tablecloth in front of him. This new tablet was subsequently a centre of much attraction, and a guest with a quick-acting mind sent Ins card to tho Savoy manager, and very soon found himself possessed of a lasting reminder of a- very pleasant gathering. Tho owner of the cloth intends to Jiavo photographs taken of the pencilled memos, and possibly he may eventually present the cloth to the Empire Press Union. The chairman read cablegrams from tho Prime Ministers of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Use Viceroy of India, and Sir Hugh Denison. Mr. Baldwin, Prime Minister of Great Britain, also sent a message expressing regret at his inability to attend. Mr. Amery in Oiieery Vein, Proposing the vote of thanks to Lord Burnham and tho other delegates, Mr. Amery said that tho delegation was admirably represented by men and women who had taken a leading part in every aspect of newspaper work —writers, editors, managers and owners. Every aspect of the life of the Fourth Estate was represented. There were, indeed some who in addition to their journalistic capacities, wens members of the Houso of Commons or of tho House of Lords. He noted, for instance, that when that gay butterfly, Lord Apsley, emerged from tho chrysalis of the hard-working immigrant, one of tho farmers who had employed him said, in an interview j " Why, I thought him giuito a decent., steady fellow, who promised to make good. I should never have thought Tie was a lord or a member of Parliament." (Laughter.) The press delegation, Mr. Amery saltl, was a most remarkable' body,, alike in its composition and in its chairmanship. (Hear, hear.) No one who had watched during the last 15 years the work of tho Empire Press Union could fail to realise the immense debt the union, and, indeed, the Empire, owed to Lord Burnham. (Cheers. ) Those who had been with him on those touxs knew how much the success of those conferences had been duo to the personality of Lord and Lady Burpham.

Beatitudes and Gratitudes.

Lord Burnham, in response, said that the delegation had returned with grateful hearts and with clearer heads. None of them thought they knew everything about the Dominions, not even the youngest of them, but they had learned to sea things free of the " London peculiar." (Laughter.) In Australia and New Zealand they were received with gargantuan hospitality. Tho Governments and the newspaper press, municipalities and chambers of commerce, public officials and priv&to citizens, vied with one another in the kindliness of th'eir attention. He knew or ought to know the number of the beatitudes—he believed there were nine—but he did not know the number of the gratitudes. Whatever their number, however, the delegation owed them all to their kind hosts, who were drawn from all parities and all classes. (Cheers.) EVery country, of course, got the newspapers that it deserved, Lord Burnham went on.to say. Nowhere wa3 there a saner, sounder, or more prosperous press than the press of Australia and New Zealand, and that surely was circumstantial evidence oil a convincing kind that there was nothing much wrong with the body politic. In most of the countries of the civilised world there were no newspapers until their politics and economics had reached many stages in their development} iu Australia and New Zealand they came into being almost with the landing of the first British colonist,

In his younger days, Lord Burnham remarked, they talked much of Greater Britain, ihat phrase did not fit the origin or the character of some of our overseas Dominions but " in its strict and appropriate meaning," it fitted exactly to the Commonwealth of Australia and ,the Dominion of New Zealand. They were that, and something mere, for they might in the long' run of the ages become the Greatest Britain of'all. (Cheers. J In the British Empire there was no common form, still less was there uniformity. More and more, in dealing with Imperial affairs, we should have to learn, as Carlyle said of Mirabes.u, to "swallow formulas." He was not saying that the "mutual and indispensible interests of trade and defence did not weigh greatly in the scales of destiny, but it was the loyalties that would determine our future fate, and of , the deeprooted and well-proven loyalties of Australia and New Zealand their tour had left them all with&ut-the shadow of a doubt. (Cheers.) Bond of the Empire's Press.

Major the Hon, J. ,J. Astor, M.P., proposing the toast of " Our Guests," said that probably one of the most lasting memories of their tour would be of the kindness a<nd generous hospitality with which they were met everywhere. But other impressions stood out* clearly, and one of the lessons they had learned was that, qaite apart from the more dramatic achievements of Imperial statecraft, Empire building and consolidation was a continuous progress, the greater part of which was none the less solid by being unobtrusive. They all felt that tha results of the conference justified their hopes, and they could claim with truth that the Empire had no greater bond and no greater strength than the Empire's press. (Cheers.) The toast was acknowledged by Sir Joseph Cook, High Commissioner for Australia, Sir James Allen, High Commissioner for New Zealand, aud Lord Forster, sac-Governor-General of Australia.