IMPERIAL BURDENS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12766, 22 June 1911, Page 5

IMPERIAL BURDENS.

SPEECH BY A NEW ZEALAND M.P. ' :\^

(United Press Association.-—'Copyright.)

LONDON, June 20.

Mr Rhodes, a New Zealander, responding to the Parliamentarians' din- ; ncr to the oversea Parliamentarians, said that when the representatives of the I>ominons as ,l*ackwoodsmen returned to the bush and wielded the axe or' mustered their flecks, they would look back kindly to that gathering iwithin those ancient walls, affd to Lord Rosebery's eloquence; that rang in their ears. They came to. pay allegiance 'to the King, who- was no stranger to them He was 'known throughout the Empire as no British Sovereign was known before. He looked forward to welcoming the Prince of Wales when, following in his father's^ footsteps, he set out to tread the path of Empire (Cheers.) Throughout the Dominions it was- recognised that the Motherland had demanded nothing of them in the past, but had given protection and made enormous sacrifices for them, and though under, her protection they blossomed forth as young nations, they had no desire to become, separate nations. (Cheers.) They realised fully what would be their fate in .such circumstances. Their desire rather was to draw tighter the Empire. Sir Joseph Ward's scheme of an ImperialCon nei I was not adopted, perhaps because it <was premature, but surely it was not too high an ideal to aim at. (Cheers.) The Dominions felt bound to share th? burden of Empire, and felt that in doing so they must have a voice in the settlement of foreign questions affecting their destinies. Lord RoscViery-had asked what-was the Dominions' message to the Mother Country. He ventured to formulate the reply that we desire not to be shareholders of a groat comvmny of the Empire, but partners. (Cheers.) The Hon. J. T Molteno, Speaker of the . South African Parliament, emphasised tli;> entire «ibsenc3'"of election petitions in South Africa, and"'the perfect smoothness of a strenuous Parliamontarv session. Racialism was, he declared, a thing of the past. The .best form of patriotism for the Dolviuions was to each keep their own Fiouso in order, and make their own corner of the Empire strong. Thestrength of individual parts was the strength or tli.-> whole. That being so, he thought South Africa had won the Empire's confidence. (Cheers.)