SIR GEORGE REID.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9707, 17 March 1910, Page 5

SIR GEORGE REID.

REPELS A CONSERVATIVE SLANDER. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. Received March 17, 9 a.m. London, March 16, Sir George Reid, in concluding his speech at the bauques in his honour asked if he might say another thing, namely, .that an insinuat'd! that Australia’s loyalty was mixed with tin fiscal question, and dep?u ied on the Motherland's answer m> the qu -sfeicus of preference and reo■ procity was an unfounded slander. (Cheers). Until any new departure was based on the conviction that it embodied the advantage of strengthening the Motherland.and Australia alike, Australians would scorn it if it was at the expense of the Motherland.

Lord Crewe,, speaxing at the banquet to Sir George Reid, said the duties of Ageuta-Geueral were in nowise entrenched upon by Sir George Raid's arrival. He tijcnght tbs comparison of the High Commissioner and Agents “General to Ambassadors was singularly infelicitous. He preferred to regard them as Imperial statesmen whose duties were partly to look after the parts of the Empire which they represented, bat also to be able to give opinions on many Imperial problems without party trammels. He thought it unlikely that the present arrangements whereby the Secretary for the Colonies looked after business connected with the overseas Dominions and the Crown Colonies would be permanent. A separation of the'duties was probable within the near future. The idea of the Imperial Council could be bast promoted by taking the oversea Dominions into conference, and whenever the interests of the Dominions ware concerned with any diplomatic problem, placing the utmost confidence in the statesmen of the Dominions.

Sir George Reid, in replying, recalled the rich stream of emigration to the Australian goldfields. They now saw in the rising greatness of Australia, in her rapidly-increasing strength and industry, and the growing volume of her trade, the magnificent dividends which Australia was rendering to British colonisation and enterprise. The Australian system of Government represented perhaps the largest measure of ‘trust in the people’ and freedom for the community that was to-day visible on the world’s face. The task of developing the Commonwealth was just as much an Imperial task as the settling of Home political difficulties, and it was a task which excited no party difficulties. The Imperial and Colonial Governments could unite in using the utmost influence to secure suitable British emigrants for the Empire’s Dominions, Many suggestions had been made for adding to the ties of undoubted affection now existing, and in considering them statesmen had a most anxious task, that of reconciling free play of self interest with enlightened regsrd for the Empire’s welfare.” Mentioning, amid cheers, Australia’s voluntary granting of preference to the Motherland, Sir George Reid remarked that he felt bound to go farther and add that Australia had a strong desire to go further and reach reciprocal arrangements— (cheers)—but the desire bad never, as far as he could see, got the length of sacrificing its own growing manufactures.

The Times hopes that Lord Crewe’s remark foreshadows that the affairs of the Dominions are coming under the : immediate cognisance of the Premier. r