MR. FISHER CRITICISED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 130, 25 July 1911, Page 6

MR. FISHER CRITICISED.

AN ANTI-EMPIRE SPEECH. London, July 23. Mr. Stead publishes in the “Review of Reviews’' an interview with Mr. histier* who said: “Don't talk of Empire. We are not an Empire. No end of mischief has arisen from the use of that word. 'We are a veryToose association of five nations, each independent, each willing for the time to remain in fraternal co-operative union with Britain and each other. We risk being attacked by England’s foes, but we should gain nothing if we were as independent as any other sovereign State, and might lose much. “We agree on this co-operation only on the condition that if at any time, or from any cause, we decide to terminate, that connection, no one can say us nay. We are independent, srff-govermng communities, untrammelled by laws, treaties, and constitutions, and free to take our own course in our own interests without anyone preventing us. “There is no necessity to say that we will or will not take" part in England’s ware. We recognise that our territory is subject to attack by England’s enemy.. If threatened we should have to decide whether to defend ourselves or, if. we thought the war unjust and England’s enemy right, whether,we should haul down the Union Jack, hoist our own flag, and start on our own. We don’t expect an attack or contemplate independence.” The “Globe” states that as Mr. Fisher at banquets declared his faith in the Empire and at the conference praised the notable advance made in calling the Premiers to the inner councils of the Committee of. Defence, it is difficult to believe the very definite anti-imperial views ascribed to him. Mr. Fisher’s doctrine is that Britain should pay all the price of Empire, and that Australia should have all the advantages until the hour of danger, when it would consider whether it would graciously continue toTly the Union Jack. If this is the settled opinion of the Dominions, then the Mother Country will herself cut the painter, and that sooner rather than later. The “Globe” considers the Empire not worth having on such terms.