A NEW EMPIRE ERA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19981, 24 December 1926, Page 13

A NEW EMPIRE ERA

MR BRUCE’S OPTIMISM. DEPARTURE FROM LONDON. (Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, December 22. Mr and Mrs Bruce arrived at Waterloo station 10 minutes before the departure of the boat train. They spent the time gaily chatting with numerous friends and officials, including Colonel de Satge (representing the Prime Minister), Mr L. S. Amcry, Lord Ashfield, Sir Newton Moore, Sir Mark Sheldon, Sir James Connelly, Mr J. G. Latham, and the AgcntsGeneral. Mr Bruce, in an interview, said he was taking to Australia the happiest possible recollections of his visit. One tinge of regret was in leaving before the Christmas festival. He would have liked to have remained for a real old-fashioned snowy Christmas, which appcarc' likely. “Now I am returning to my sunshiny country, I think the best Christmas wish is ‘a sunny future for the Empire.’ I mn confident that it will come, for I am filled with optimism as I look back on what was accomplished at the conference. The outcome of that momentous yet happy gathering is a new spirit of cooperation. It has dispelled all the doubts and suspicions which existed in some people’s minds, and should open a new era for the British Empire, in which the great self-governing dominions, while continuing to work out their own great individual problems, will co-operate in a spirit of unity for the further progress of the Empire as a whole. I wholeheartedly appreciate the kindness, courtesy, and hospitality shown not only by the heads of the country, but by the people of Britain.”—A. and N.Z. Cable.