IMPERIAL UNITY

Otago Witness, Issue 3005, 18 October 1911, Page 27

IMPERIAL UNITY

LONDON. October 15

The Earl and Countess of Dudley were -welcomed Lome at Kidderminster. Lord Dudley declared there Avas a great and growing feeling in Australia that Australians should be partners in the Council of Empire. They dnsifed to be regarded as a distinct branch of the British race, enjoying largely, all the privileges of national life, and qualified to be considered important and responsible in a federacy of the self-governing States under the segis : of the Crown. We are reaching, he said, a critical stage in Imperial history, and any attempt to check the national development of .the do(minions or to deal - captiously or carpingly would, alienate their oversea kinsmen. They must allow them to develop on their own lines, and use patience and take them into their confidence. Imperial consolidation would be enormously difficult and complex, the standpoints of Great Britain and the dominions being so varied, but an interchange of views on- all problems would enable them to come to a mutual ixnderstanding. Lord Dudley added that the Empire's existence as a first class Power depended upon their success in binding all parts of the Empire together.