THE OVERSEA PREMIERS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10961, 25 July 1921, Page 5

THE OVERSEA PREMIERS

HONOURED AT BATH FREEDOM OF THE CITY CONFERED. NOTABLE SPECHES. By Telegraph—Press Assn.- -Conyright. Australian and. N.Z. Cable Association. (Received July 24, 11.5 p.iii.j LONDON, July 23. The freedom of the City of Batli,was conferred on the Maharajah of Outch, Mr W. M. Hughes, and Mr W. E. Massey. The Mayor and councillors welcomed the visitors at the railway station. Three little girls presented Mesdames Hughes and Massey and Miss Massey with - bouquets. The visitors then went in i\ procession through the gaily-decorated streets to the Grand Pump Room, where the freedom was conferred. The guests included the Marquis of Bath, Viscount Ullswater (formerly the Right Hon. J. IV. Lowther, Speaker of the House of Com. mons). The Mayor, in conferring the. freedom, said it gave infinite pleasure to welcome overseas representatives, not only on account of tho statesmanship they displayed during the difficult years, but also because they were the representatives of a great nation beyond the seas. The freedom symbolised the fact that though we were separated by thousands of miles yet we were all of one stock under one Empire and one Sovereign, with the same ideas, policies and hopes for the future. “We desire to. remember the heroism and self-sacri-fice displayed by our distant kinsmen, during the war. The time is long past when the colonies are regarded rather os a burden than a bulwark of the Empire. Mr Lloyd George recently reminded us that the Dominions* forces turned the scale in the war and did their share in saving the world from Kaiserism.”

Addressing Mr Hughes the Mayor said-: “When wo recall Amtae and Gal lipoli we may well ask whether anything is impossible to such a nation after the great deeds those names recall. Nor do we forget that an Australian ship destroyed the Emden. We also remember what you have done during your Premiership, not only m advancing yoiur great Dominion, 'mm in helping forward the great desire* for permanent, peace throughout the world.”

Addressing Mr Massey, the Mayor said: “New Zealanders, like their brother Australians, showed us the stuff they were made of during the war. It is difficult to express in a few words our appreciation of yrrur services in the cause of the Empire. You. have always been a fighter, and it is largely due to your efforts that the people of the Dominion threw their weight into the war for freedom. We are glad to show in a slight measure what youi people have done for us.” Mr Hughes and Mr Massey thanked the city for the honour paid through them to their -respective countries. Mr Massey highly eulogised Lord; Jell icon’s sendees as Governor-General. At a luncheon in the Guildhall at Bath, Mr Frederick Harrison, the wellknown 'litterateur, proposed the health of the visitors. He said all who watched the incontestable events of this “annus mirabaliß” knew that the present moment was fraught with vast problems, on which the peace of tho Kingdom and of the world depended. The occasion which brought into conference Prime -Ministers of the Dominions was in itself one of the most remarkable crises in our time. It meant an entirely new reorganisation of tiio Empire, or rather the consolidation of the Allied Commonwealths under the Crown. As an old historian he remembered how vast and rapid was the progress in which their time was cast. When he was a grown man India was still governed by a company of merchants. Now it had constitutional government. In his youth the great Australian Commonwealth and Canada were colonies. When he was a schoolboy Melbourne, Sydney, and Auckland were iftnst built. Now they had seen what those powerful nationalities had done in the war and peace, how glorious their deeds of arms and how much they could teach the Old Country, not merely an cricket, but in every form of industry and civilisation. If progress so vast had been achieved in the lifetime of one man, wlhnt might mot the future have in store for them and for Us ? He described Mr Hughes as ’an unsurpassed orator in the English tongue and Mr Massey as a man of great experience, both in "peace and war.

Mr Hughes, replying, said Australians were endeavouring to build up in the far-off land civilisation saturated with British ideals. The overseas Dominions had, he believed, as great and glorious future as the British race could look back upon. Against the institutions of the British Empire to-day’ all forces of anarohy and destruction were gathered, but so long as they stood firm together neither the forces of anarchy and! destruction nor of hell itself would prevail against them. (Cheeirs.) Mr Massey said the Empire had a tremendous power for good in spreading enlightenment in every corner of the earth. The Conference had done good work. Some people thought of tile Empire as the United Kingdom, but besides India and the Dominions there were forty-three Crown colonies. It was tho aim of the Conference to make these separate entities speak with one voice as one nation. Notwithstanding the League of Nations, he could not help thinking that war had rot ended. Wo must prepare against attack and_ bo strong enough to protect the chain of nations of which the Empire consists. .