INTERESTING SPEECHES

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13929, 12 June 1909, Page 2

INTERESTING SPEECHES

By Electric Telegraph.— Copyright. LONDON, June 11. At to-day's sitting of the Imperial Pre&s Conlerence, Lord Morley (Secretary ot State for liicha) said that much had recently been said about the rebarbansation of Europe. He asked: 'To what extent has the press shared, in creating tho processes which so threaten r 1 Has the influence of the Home and colonial press been systematically and perseveringly used on oelalf ot the peace of the nations?" Mr. Winston Churchill (President of the Board of Trade) admitted that they were living in anxious times. He humorously added that after the discu&sion, which opened with most appalling prospects of an approaching Armageddon, he thought the conference showed great courage to calmly sit down and discuss journalism and literature. Lord Milner described the idea of the re-barbarisation of Europe as "dreadrul nonsense." He believed that disputes nowadays would be less frequently settled by nar than in any period, me reason being that the European lations were now mostly organised. The system of national armies and citizens.' armies made for peace. Mr. Douglas (Auckland) said the conference had been discussing the supreme question of defence. The colonies realised that a catastrophe meant ruin to them. They were consequently ready to supply the Motherland with men* ships, and money. "Tell us," he said, "what you want of us, and we will do it." (Cheers.) Turning to the subject under discussion, he said newspapers missed being literature through want of time. Their primary purpose was not the cultivation of literary style, but the presentation of news. This, he claimed, was never so well nnd promptly done as to-day. He believed the press at Home and in the colonies were honestly striving to maintain the traditions already won. The press remained a great and Beneficent force.