IMPERIAL AFFAIRS

Southland Times, Issue 16687, 16 March 1911, Page 5

IMPERIAL AFFAIRS

SIR JOSEPH WARD'S SUGGESTION BRITISH PRESS COMMENT. (By Telegraph —Press Association —Copyright). LONDON, March 15. Received March 15, 11.10 p.m. A number of provincial newspapers make favourable comment on Sir Joseph Ward’s speech. The Deed’s Mercury, a Liberal organ, declares that New Zealand is always in the forefront with freshening ideas. The time is approaching when it will be necessary to establish an Imperial body to administer the armed forces of the Crown. The Yorkshire Observer, in a critical article, states that Sir Joseph Ward’s proposal for an Imperial War Parliament will make a circuit of the capitals of the Empire, and suggests Macaulay's New Zealander on the ruins of London Bridge. Nevertheless Britain’s population ensures her dominant authority for many years. The Manchester Courier says that New' Zealand, with a population the size of that of Lancashire, has made sacrifices for the Empire unmatched throughout the Dominions. The spirit of the Labour party controlling politics in the antipodes is very different from that of Labourites in the House of Commons, who regard defence of the country as a form of militarism and lunacy. CANADA’S DESIRES. LONDON, March 15. Received March 15, 11.10 p.m. The Times ie not surprised at Sir W. Laurier’s agitation as to Canada’s liberation from the Motherland’s most favoured nation treaties in order to seek facilities to enter into arrangements with other Dominions or foreign countries offering satisfactory reciprocal terms. This suggests recognition of the Imperial need of adequate machinery to deal with Imperial questions. Unless that machinery be provided in the different portions of the Empire there will be danger of adopting partial solutions which would possibly be difficult mutually to reconcile. Though the time was perhaps not ripe for such a comprehensive scheme as Sir Joseph Ward’s the matter engaged growing attention in the Motherland. LONDON, March 14. Sir W. J. Taverner, interviewed by the “Evening Standard,” said that Sir J. G. Ward’s scheme was too elaborate. It would be more feasible to have an Imperial council of experts, whose function it would be to advise the Imperial Government.