LORD MAYOR’S BANQUET.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18112, 12 November 1928, Page 9

LORD MAYOR’S BANQUET.

SPEECHES BY MINISTERS. (Ueit.4 Fro* Association—By El will* T*leer»ph— (opyriEM.) LONDON, November 9. Sir Samuel Hoare, responding to the toast ot the ‘‘imperial .Forces'’ at the Lord Mayor’s banquet, said irfle recent air defence operat.ons showed that defence squads operated with speed and precision worthy of the London Fire Bridagc. “We are not making these defence preparations because we believe war is likely, hut Britain must insure against the remotest r.sks. We do not want competition in air armaments, and we do not want to create a Frankenstein monster that will destroy its creators. My view is that there should be an agreement between the great Powers of .Europe on a basis of air equality, without which there are great risks of a struggle for supremacy that will beggar the' taxpayei, and may eventually destroy European civilisation.”

He said he was glad to announce that he had made arrangements with •Italy and Persia, removing the difficulties facing a regular air service to India, which would begin early in the spring. He said he regretted that Flight-Lieutenant Greig, by n fraction of a second missed establishing a new speed record. He wished him luck when in due course another attempt wou'd b e made

Mr Churchill, proposing the toast of “Foreign Ambassadors,” said we were shortly to embark on a serious intricate financial discussion with Germany 7, with the sure confidence, despite diffieu'ties, that, we would achieve a resilt mutually beneficial and capable of carrying the world fo r ward to a surer and truer foundation. Britain regards the liberation of German finance and. soil from foreign interference and control, as on object of high value and importance. Mr Baldwin, after reviewing the international changes during the past four years, said: "Then we were divided into camps of Victors and Vanquished. The distinction no longer exists. I hope the words will be forgotten. We have all learned the lesson of cooperation and goodwill. When the history of the present is written, no greater act will he credited to the United States than the initiation of the Kellogg Pact, the signatures on which would be meaningless unless the nations determine that they shall be honoured to the end of time. Then, for the first time will the nations be able to talk disarmament and the way leading thereto. The nations must either keep faith with the spirit of the Pact or ultimately go down the steep p'aces, like the Ganderene swine, and perish eternally.”