IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

Southland Times, Issue 19257, 22 June 1921, Page 5

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

THE OPENING CEREMONIES MR MASSEY CREATES AN IMPRESSION (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, June 20. Great interest was taken in the opening of the Imperial Conference. Downing Street was barricaded against the Sinn Fein menace, but the barriers failed to block photographers and reporters. The delegates were not anxious to be snapped. Geernal Smuts was the only one to offer facilities. The Indian representative was the first to arrive, wearing a turban and accompanied by Prince Ranjitsinhji. He dashed into No. 10 without showing his face. Prince Ranjitsinhji smiled amiably. Both were received by Mr Lloyd George, who looked well after his holiday. Mr Massey’s entourage was the most impressive of all, a uniformed chauffeur and soldier-like commissionaire attending him. Mr Hughes was punctual for once arriving on the stroke of noon frock-coated and top-hatted. Otherwise it was a most modest display. Mr Hughes looked very serious. He is sunburned after the week-end. The last to come was Mr Meighen, the youngest Prime Minister. Immediately following was a huge laundry waggon which drew up at No. 10, greatly amusing the crowd, who suggested that it had brought dirty linen to be washed. Mr Churchill, with bent shoulders and wearing a soft hat, walked through the barrier as the Conference commenced. Lord Haldane, also stooping greatly, exchanged a few words with him at the entrance. As Mr Lloyd George made a formal introduction a dove perched on the window, auguing well. The Ministers present included Mr Chamberlain, the Hon E. S. Montague, and Mr Balfour. MR LLOYD GEORGE’S SPEECH. ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE EMPIRE. RELATIONS WITH AMERICA AND JAPAN. LONDON, June 20. (Received June 21, 5.5 p.m.) Mr Lloyd George, in his opening address to the Conference, spoke as follows: “I bid you all a hearty welcome to Great Britain and Downing Street. Since our last meeting some notable gaps have occurred in the British Empire delegation. Sir Robert Borden has laid down the cares of office. By General Botha’s death the Empire has sustained a heavy loss. Mr Hughes and Mr Massey are old friends. We three enjoy the unenviable distinction of being the only Prime Ministers who took part in the war. I also extend cordial greetings to the Maharaja of Cutch and Mr Sastri, the representatives of the Indian Empire. The Conference falls at a time of great stress in England and trouble in many parts of the world. It is inevitable that nations which put forth colossal efforts and sustained unparalleled losses in life, limb, and treasure during the war should feel the consequences of over strain and exhaustion. The distress amongst the population was much greater after the Napoleonic wars than at the present time, for despite unemployment and labour unrest there is no actual privation amongst the population. The war has produced a condition from which it will take years to recover.

“In spite of a good deal that is discouraging, I am confident the world is slowly working through its troubles. The world is passing through the usual experience of first denying the exisetnee of palpable realities and then settling down to act upon them. A distinctly encouraging feature in the international situation is the fact that there is increasing impatience with those who seek to keep the world in a state of turmoil and tension. There is a deepening conviction that the world must have peace if it is ever to recover health. Some of the most troublesome and most menacing problems of peace have either been settled or are in a fair way to settlement. Two questions gave great anxiety. One was the disarmament of Germany and the other reparations. The disarmament of Germany may be stated to be settled. The problem of the German fleet has disappeared, and so has that of the Austrian fleet. The German army has disappeared as a great and powerful force. It numbered millions but now numbers little more than £lOO,OOO. It had tens of thousands of guns, and now has a few hundred. It had an enormous number of machine guus and trench mortars. Those have gone. It had millions of rifles. The German surrendered thirty million rounds of big ammunition. It is not so much Prussia that is giving us trouble as Bavaria.

“That difficulty will, I think, be overcome in a very short time. The problem of disarmament, which is vital because so long as Germany had a big army there was no guarantee of peace, will disappear. None knows better than Mr Hughes the practical difficulties surrounding the problem of reparations. The question is how you are to transfer payment from one country and make it in another. As Mr Hughes knows, that problem has baffled all the financial experts in Paris, and only after two years have we hit upon an expedient which seems to have given satisfaction to all moderate and practical men in European countries. That seems to be the view of the Dominions. They have a direct concern in it. Germany has accepted a very practical plan of liquidating her liabilities. France and Italy have accepted it, and public opinion in England has also accepted it. “The two remaining difficulties are, firstly, the fixation of the boundaries of Poland, partly of Lithuania, and now Silesia, and secondly, making peace with Turkey. The first essential to peace and reconstruction is that westand by our treaties. Some grow weary of these great responsibilities and speak as though it were possible to renounce them without injustice to other peoples or detriment to ourselves I venture to say that such arguments are as short-sighted as they are false. The Nations and peoples of the world realise their inter-depend-ence in a greater measure than ever before the war. The League of Nations stands as a witness of their realisation of this truth. No progress can be made towards the rehabilitation of Europe or the permanent peace of the world except upon the basis of acceptance and enforcement of treaties. | There may be relaxations here and there i following upon the discovery of new conditions with the consent of all parties, but the treaties must stand. No signatory should have thp right to override any part of a treaty to which all are parties. “The Empire is bound by honour and interest alike to the treaties which it signed. Unless treaty faith is maintained an era of disorganisation, increasing misery, and smouldering war will continue, and civilisation will very easily be destroyed by a prolongation of that state of things. “Lord Curzon on his return will give a survey of foreign affairs. I will not anticipate his statement, but I should like to refer to the relations of the Empire with the United States and Japan. There is no quarter of the world where we desire more greatly to maintain peace and fair play for all nations and to avoid competition in armaments than in the Pacific and the Far East. Our alliance with Japan has been a valuable factor in the past. We have found Japan a faithful ally who rendered us valuable assistance in an hour of serious and critical need. The Empire will not easily forget that Japanese men-of-war escorted transports bringing the Australian and New Zealand -forces to Europe at a time when German cruisers were still in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. We desire to preserve that well tried friendship, and to apply it to the solution of all questions in the Far East, where Japan has special interests and where we ourselves, like the United States, desire equal opportunities of an open door. Not the least question is the future of China, which looks to us as well as the United States for sympathetic treatment and fair play 3 No

greater calamity could overtake the world than a further concentration of the world’s divisions upon lines of race. The Empire has done a signal service to humanity by bridging these divisions ,m the past. The loyalty of the King’s Asiatic peoples is proof. To depart from that policy, to fail in that duty, would not only greatly increase the dangers of international war; it ‘ would divide the British Empire against itself. Our foreign policy, can never range itself in any sense upon differences of race and civilisation between East and West. It would be fatal to the Empire. We look confidently to the Government and people of the United States for sympathy and understanding in this respect. “The friendly co-operation of the United I States is for us a cardinal principle dictated by instinct quite as much as by reason and : commonsense. We desire to work with the great republic in all respects. As regards limitation of armaments we will undertake that such overtures will not find a lack of : willingness on our part to meet them. Meantime we cannot forget that the life of the United Kingdom, as also that of Australia and New Zealand, and, indeed, of the whole Empire, has been built up on sea power. ! That sea power is the necessary basis of world peace. Like the United States we want stability and peace on the basis of liberty and justice. We desire to avoid the growth of armaments, whether in the Pacific or elsewhere, and we rejoice that American opinion should be showing earnestness in that direction at the present time. We are ready to discuss with American statesmen any, proposal. We look to measures which security requires us to aim at. We cannot , possibly be content with less. “The British Government has been under | suspicion in some quarters of harbouring de- ; signs against this conference. We are said to 1 be dissatisfied with the present state of the Empire, and to wish to alter its organisation ! in some revolutionary way. We are not at all satisfied. Another change which has taken ; place since the war is the decision of the I Canadian Government to have a Minister in ' Washington. We co-operated willingly and ; shall welcome a Canadian colleague in , Washington, as soon as the appointment is ; made. We will welcome any suggestion you have for the association of yourselves with • the conduct of foreign relations. There was 1 a time when Downing Street controlled the ■ Empire. To-day it is in charge of Downing 1 Street. We want to know your standpoint, | and we want to tell you ours. In recognition I of their services and achievements in the ■ war the dominions have been accepted fully into the comity of nations by the whole world. They have achieved full national status and now stand beside the United Kingdom as equal partners in the dignities and responsibilities of the British Commonwealth. India’s achievements were also very great. Its theatre in Europe was remote, yet India stood by her allegiance heart and soul from the first call to arms, and some of her soldiers are still serving far from their home and families in the common cause. India’s loyalty in the great crisis is eloquent of the Empire’s success in bridging East and West. India also proved her right to a new status in our councils, and I welcome her representatives to the great Council of the Empire. The war has revealed to the world that the Empire is now an abstraction but a living force. This opportune revelation of the reality of the Empire has altered the history of the world. I Those who know how narrow the margin was between victory and defeat can proclaim without hesitation that without those two million men from outside the United Kingdom Prussianism would probably have triumphed in the West before the American troops arrived. Lord Curzon, who is now discussing with M. Briand the execution of a victorious treaty, would be discussing how best to carry out the humiliating terms dictated by the triumphant war lords of Germany. The reign of unbridled forec would have been supreme and unregulated. The unity of the British Empire saved France, Britain and civilisation from that catastrophe. “Victory has its cares as well as defeat, but they are ephemeral and are soon surmounted. Defeat would have reversed the engines of progress, and democracy would have been driven back centuries. The British Empire is the saving fact in a distracted world. It is the most hopeful experiment in ’f.uman organisation that the world has yet seen. The Empire is based not on force but on goodwill and common understanding. Liberty is its binding principle. In this room we stand for the long political development of the British Isles with all its splendour and pains, the crucible from which the framework of the whole great structure has emerged. In all the marvellous achievements of our people which this gathering reflects I am most deeply impressed by the blending of East and West. Our duty here is to present the ideals of the great association of peoples in willing loyalty £o one Sovereign, to take counsel together regarding the progress and welfare of all, and to keep our strength, both moral and material, a united power of justice, liberty and peace.” At the conclusion of his address Mr Meighen congratulated Mr Lloyd George. The other dominion representatives endorsed Mr Meighen’s remarks, expressing the greatest appreciation of the address. At Tuesday’s sitting each Premier will speak, giving his detailed views on all questions most concerning his dominion. The actual discussion of the matters on the agenda paper will not be taken up until all the Premiers have spoken. Mr Deane, the secretary of the Premier’s Department, will attend all the Conference’s sittings. He a position immediately opposite Mr Lloyd George.