IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

Taranaki Daily News, 26 November 1926, Page 7

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

SOME ADVERSE CRITICISM CANADA’S SERIOUS VIEW BRITISH PRESS COMMENT By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Received Nov. 25, 8.10 p.m. Ottawa, Nov. 24. In the opinion of Mr. Hugh Guthrie, the acting Conservative leader, the report of the Imperial Conference “raises questions of the gravest import to Canada and the Empire. I fail to see anything in the conclusions which can be viewed in any way as strengthening or consolidating Imperial interests. Their tenor is all the other way. As an actual statement of .he status quo between the Dominions and tlie Mother Country,, the report may be of some value, but I fear the whole tendency of the document is to loosen rather than strengthen the foundations of the Empire without conferring any practical benefit upon the Dominions.” BRITISH PRESS OPINIONS. RESTRAINED CRITICISM. London, Nov. 24. The press generally commends the spirit of the Conference and regards the proceedings as fruitful, hut there is a note of restrained criticism in some editorials. The Morning Post states: “No doubt there are local questions where the Dominions’ powc- to make separate treaties with foreign nations may be useful, but we think the tendency suggested is weakening and therefore dangerous. The Dominions will doubtless in practice find they carry much less weight when they approach a great Power singly than when the matter is handled with the hole weight of the British Empire behind it.” Discussing . defence, the newapaper stresse. that the States of the Dominions would not long survive were the Empire to fall; they would be the prizes of war, helpless to protect their trade, liberties and even their existence. The Daily Chronicle states: “The bonds implying subordination have been swept away, but actual bonds there must be if the Imperial relationship is to be a success—bonds of interest .in trade, of defence, of migration, and of culture. No machinery helping to strengthen those should be neglected.” The Daily News says:“The Conference makes not a single suggestion whereby the Empire can assist in the work of disarmament; on the contrary, it recognises that, even after a large measure of reduction has been-secured (presumably by other- nations) a formidable effort to maintain her own forces will be necessary to Great Britain. This assuredly is another victory for qur masters in Whitehall.” The Times says: “Members of the Conference have in a sense rediscovered the Empire. It must again be emphasised thSt the brilliant document published at the week-end contained’no innovations; nevertheless, something new has evdently happened. This new thing is intangible and unfettered, just as the Empire itself is unfettered by precedent and free to meet what the future may bring. The new thing is perhaps a sense of greater and more effective unity in such freedom. The ground is cleared of political doubts about the nature of the Empire, and a new opportunity is given to go forward in co operation.”