EMPIRE PRESS UNION.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVI, Issue 16253, 27 April 1917, Page 7

EMPIRE PRESS UNION.

ENTERTAINS IMPERIAL MINISTERS. BETTER NEWS SERVICE URGED. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) LONDON, April 25. The Empire Press . Union gave ai luncheon to the War Conference delagates at the Savoy Hotel. Lord Bumham presided over on* hundred guests, including Messrs W a H. Long and Austen Chamberlain, thai High Commissioners, British an 3 Indian editors and several of thei Dominions' pressmen. Lord Burnlmm urged that a better! news service should be instituted between the Dominions and the United Empire. The cables were now so congested tha'fc they could not get through more than one-third of the proper quantity of news. He advocated an All-Red cable. Sir Robert Borden, Canadian Prettier, said that the step taken in calling a War Cabinet marked a constitutional development of the Empire, which would proceed along the path of equal nationhood. Communicaition vnd transportation were vital factors in order to keep the Empire together. Canada was willing to fight ° until Germany was beaten. Mr . .Massey j u h is sp h ov'wsuk .the Press of the southern hemisphere for its high tone and fairness. He regretted the paucity of Dominion nows in British newspapers. Better cable communication was required. This suggestion should be taken up by the different Governments. Referring to Anzac Day he hoped than Gallipoli would not be left to a foreign country. Sir James Meston (India}, said the bringing of Indian and Dominions representatives into the conference had done much to remove existing misunderstandings. He hoped the suggestion of the Parliamentary visit to India would include a Dominions delegation and also Press representatives, and that the visit would be made before the next conference. General Smuts insisted on determined warfare. We should not give the enemy a chance of again becoming a world scourge.