COLONIAL PREMIERS AT HOME.

New Zealand Mail, 27 August 1902, Page 59 (Supplement)

COLONIAL PREMIERS AT HOME.

AN IMAGINARY CORRESPONDENCE (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, July 12. The following amusing “Letters Home” in the “Outlook” purport to give the colonial Premiers’ views about one another and about the Colonial Secretary: MR S-DD--N. I ari-ived here first, and got a straight pull on the other fellows. Everything goes well, and you will hear of me at the Conference. B—rt—n is doing the majestic, and thinks himself a cut above the rest of us. “Pooh, pooh!” is his line at present; but wait till I get him at the table! Ch—mb—rl—n is not quite so easy as I thought, but lie will not be able to back out of his support of my speeches. Tiie effect of my tour in South Africa was simply immense. K—tch—n—r had gone quite stale before I arrived. You know" the result. You would be surprised at my cabling for the name of the best manual of elementary. political economy, but I could not ask anybody here. T am watched worse than the Prince of "Wales. SIR E. B—RT—N. The moment I arrived all the London newspapers sent representatives to interview me. I selected one, and told him nothing. Representing as I do the entire power o£ Australia, it does not become me to behave with the freedom of the other fellows. S—dd—n is making a perfect fool of himself. Everybody is laughing at him, and ho does not know it. I gave him an awful wipe in my interview over his tariff scheme.

I begin to see why he would not alloy his pottering little colony to come into the Commonwealth. 'They say he wants it to be called Seddonland. Laurier arrived the other day awfully sick. He will be sicker still when he has to eat that speech of his about the corn duties. As for Ch—mb—rl—n, he wants to find out my plan; I want to find out his. SIR W-—LFR—D L—R—R. I find England positively reeking with Empire. That phrase of mine: “This great Empire on which the sun ever shines’ has become quite hackneyed. R—dd—n from New Zealand and ■“ rt—n from Australia are going about mouthing bits of my old speeches for their own glorification. As for the tariff business, well, I am afraid there will bo more Empire than tariff at our conference, A strange thing is that Ch—mb—rl—n always winks at one with one eye, or seems to do so, as much as to say, “Keep it up.” It makes my position difficult, sandwiched between you people in Canada and tho English people here, but my gift of speech comes m handy. Much obliged for that limt to study Brarke’s speeches, there is a lot of really new stuff in

them. The Seddon* party is four; wife and two daughters, and he brings them V all every time. " SIR J. G—BD—N SPR—GG. My position is most unpleasant. There is more than ever I imagined behind this movement to suspend the Constit \tion in Cape Colony, and then —well, I feel Eke tho relative of a hanged man. There is a tremendous want of perspective about the English people. , They positively enjoy listening to the man called S—dd—n from New Zealand, who has managed to impress them with the idea that he conquered South Africa. Nobody seems ‘ to know me outside tho Colonial Office, and there they stare at me as if I had a rope round my neck. I assure you it’s most unpleasant.