SURPRISING STATEMENTS BY MR FISHER.

Colonist, Volume LIII, Issue 13167, 25 July 1911, Page 2

SURPRISING STATEMENTS BY MR FISHER.

ANTI-IMPERIALISTIC VIEWS,

[Peebb Association —Copyright.]

London, July 23

Mr W. T. Stead publishes in the "Review of Reviews" an interview with Mr Fisher, Australian Premier, who said: "Don't talk of Empire, are not an Empire. No end of mischief arises in the use of that word. We are a vory loose association of five nations, each independent, each willing for the time to remain fraternal and co-operative union with Britain and each other, but only on condition that if at any time or for any cause we decide to terminate that connection, no one can say us nay. We are an. independent, self-governing community, ■untrammelled ;by la\)s or treaties or constitutions, free to take our own course in our own interests without anyone preventing us. There is no necessity to say we will or will not take part in England's wars. We recognise that our territory is subject to attack by England's enemy, and if threatened we should have to decide whether we should defend ourselves or if we thought the war unjust and England's enemy right, wo should haul down the Union Jack, hoist our own flag, and start on our own. W« don't expect attack or contemplate independence, because we expect a riddance of risk from being attacked by England's foes, and we gain nothing if we are as independent as any other sovereign State, and we might lose much."