MR BALFOUR'S TRIBUTE.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 211, 18 May 1909, Page 2

MR BALFOUR'S TRIBUTE.

GLOWING EULOGY ON THE NEW ZEALAND OFFER. "THIS MAGNIFICENT EXHIBITION." "LONDON, April 2. The Right Hon. A. J. Balfour paid a fine tribute to the New Zealand offer of Dreadnoughts in his speech tliis week at a great mas? meeting held at Islington under the auspices of the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations. The meeting was attended by something like 10,000 people, and was one of the greatest, ever held in the metropolis. The cables have given you a brief precis of Mr Balfour'6 speech, but in view of the grave^ importance of the subject I need make no apology, I am sure, for giving verbatim that portion of his address which dealt with New Zealand's offer and the further question of Imperial fiscal policy. "I know nothing more moving, more magnificent," said Air Balfour, "than the immediate response, the unsolicited response, made D3 r New Zealand — (cheers) — by that great sister State, to the needs of the country— -of our own two 6mall islands, from whom all these sister States have spread. New Zealand, you all know — every Englishman, every Scotchman, every "irishman knows at this moment — that New Zealand has come forward, when she could' only have had a telegraphic summary of what has gone on in the House of Commons, and offered a Dreadnought to the Empire. — (Cri«s of " Bravo r and cheers.) Do you realise what the population of New Zealand as? The population of New Zealand is about the same as five out of the twenty-eight London boroughs which surround this hall. The population of New Zealand is about one-fifth of London ; it is less than one-fortieth of the United Kingdom. And the contribution which New Zealand has offered to Imperial needs i6 a contribution which in capital figures would relatively amount to a great deal more than the annual taxation of this | country. — (Cheers, and a voice: "When aie we going to give it preference?"). I will come to that presently. Every man, I do not care what his opinions may be, in I whose breast there beats one pulse of patriotic motive, every man must be deeply moved by this magnificent exhibition of Imperial sentiment ; and if there be a man, and I hope there is none, whose tendency is to despair of. the future of the British Empire, to overrate the gathering difficulties with which we or our children may have to deal, I say, leam a lesson of genuine confidence and optimism from what one of the smallest of our sister States has done ; learn not to despair of what British patriotism has in its power to do, and what British patriotism, when the occasion arises, will most assuredly accomplish, whether it be at the other side of the world or across the Atlantic or in the two islands which we inhabit. — (Cheei-8.) — Not a Mere Subvention. — 'I have to admit, while no words that I can command, adequately express the sentiments with which I regard this practical ttelf-eacrificing tribute to a great Imperial ideal, that I am not so satisfied with the reception which it has met with at the hands of the Government. — (Hear, hear.) I Understand that our sister State this Dreadnought for our immediate need. —(Hear, hear.) It has be«n rejected from that point of view. — (Cries of "Shame.") It has been accepted, as I understand it, more or less conditionally for some subsequent occasion. — (Cries of "Shame.") I do not wish to put that criticism too high, because I do not understand that New Zealand itself has made it, and it ia not my business or my Tight to explain to the inhabitants of Great Britain precisely what it was that New Zealand had in view ; but on another aspect of the question I 6peak with more confidence. The Government seem to have taken this Dreadnought as a relief to the British taxpayer — not so much as an addition to the British naval btrength as a diminution of the burdens that fall upon the taxpayer in this country. —("Shame," and "That will not do.") I tlo not deny that the taxpayer in this country has had to pay, and will have to pay, in correspondence with the Imperial obligations falling upon the Mother Country ; but I do not believe that it is beyond our power to do 60. The time, indeed, may come when the relative population and the relative wealth of Great Britain, is compared with the sister States of the Empire, may have undergone some profound alteration, and we shall have to look to them with a degree which up to the present time we have not been obliged to look to them to help us to carry the great and growing responsibilities of Empire. But in my opinion that time has not yet come j and while I most gladly and joyfully accept every aid which the sister States" can give, let that aid be given in addition, let it bo a 6uper-added precaution— (cheens) — let it be something which is to guard against the unknown, the unexpected, the incalculable, and the unforeseen. Let it not be part of the ordinary provision of ordinary times — (clieers) — and let us not deal with the splendid and patriotic liberality of a relatively small community like that of New Zealand merely as a subvention to our own pecuniary necessities, but let us meet them in the spirit in which they have come to us, and let us accept their magnificent offer as an additional guarantee that whatever happens, whatever comes, whatever be the policy of this or that great military country, the supremacy of Great Brituin on the seas shall be undisputed and indisputable. —•(Cheers.) — Colonial Preference. — I have but one further observation to make, and that is suggested by an interruption — a perfectly courteous interruption — which I think I caught from the gallery opposite. I think I heard ak voice say " What about Preference?" — (Cheers.) Surely that interruption was not an irrelevant one. Here we are accepting, and joyfully accepting, this immense booh — this gift, which, compared with the resources of the giver, is of enormous magnitude. We are accepting it, and rightly accepting; it, with gratitude. Are we going to give anything in return? — (Cheers.) We find the Government in their reckless financial career making it obviously more and niore impossible, whatever your fiscal views may be, to collect the revenue of this country upon the >old lines. More and more plainly does the necessity show itself ! for adopting a scheme which, be it good or bad, our fathers had not to Tesort to. 'We shall have to resort to it. — (Cheers.) Even supposing that you are wrong and that I am wrong, or those who believe in the expediency of a great fiscal change—supposing we are all wrong, be it expedient or inexpedient — it is going to be necessary. — (Loud cheers.) And if it be expedient, as I believe, as you believe, as London ! believes, and as the country is going to believe— if it be necessary, as even those who differ from us will soon be forced to admit— then I ask you, Are we not, out of the new fiscal system which must be born of our necessities, if it is not to be born of our wishes, are we not out of that fiscal change to give our colonies that which they ask for ?-(Cheers. ) You are going to accept from New Zealand a gift which in a year amounts to more per head I believe a great deal mor6 / er he *£' o { wL£T^V-° n * NeW Zeal ™ d our Whole taxation m a year amounts to per i

head of the inhabitants of the British Islands, and you are going to refuse to New Zealand that which New Zealand, Australia, the Cape, Canada, the whole constellation, of the sister States have asked steadily, persistently, patiently year by year. You cannot manage an Empire oil these lines. — (Loud cheers.) # — New Zealand's Lead. — However dull your imagination, however hidebound your economic theories, there purely are situations which will break through even the most obstinate and narrow traditions. And if anything could bring home to the imagination -af our countrymen what it is to be the leading State, the leading community, in this great Imperial organisation — I say if anything could bring home to them the responsibilities which are falling upon them, surely it is New Zealand coming to us" in a moment when, by the admission of the Government as Avell as by our own contention, a new era of responsibility, a new era of cost, nay, a new era of national peril and responsibility is upon us. I say, when we have the sight of New Zealand coming before us in that crisis with the magnificent generosity which she has displayed — (cheers) — is there a man with heart so cold, is there a man of imagination so hidebound in tradition, who does not see that, putting aside all other and all narrower considerations, the responsibility lies now and henceforth on every Government controlling this- great country to see that we do meet the colonies M-her-ever we can, not by doing what they have never demanded — namely, sacrificing our own prosperity to their own particular views — but by doing what they have asked, which is, that when the time comes, as come it must, whoever is in office, when we have vitally and fundamentally to ! alter the manner in which we raise the taxation of this country, when that time comes we shall not only remember that we are Englishmen, Scotchmen. Irishmen — not only remember that we live in these two historic islands, but remember also that we are now the centre of the Empire of which all the sister States are growing and are destined to grow, and that we have duties to them as well us to ourselves. — (Loud cheers.)