IMPERIAL PRESS CONFERENCE

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12794, 12 June 1909, Page 5

IMPERIAL PRESS CONFERENCE

Interesting Dlscussfon

Pre« Association— Telegraph.— Copyright. Received June 12, 8.50 a.m. LONDON, June 11. At the conference, \ iscouut Moriey said that much had recently been said about the re-barbaridation ot Europe. He abked to what extent the Presis shared in creating the procebses which so threaten? Has the influence of the Home a^id colonial Press been systematically aud perseveringly used on behali of the peace of nations? Mr Winston Churchill admitted that we were living in anxious times, and humourously added that after a discussion which opened the most appalling prospects of an approaching Armageddon he thought the conference showed great courage to calmly sit down to literature and journalism. Lord Milner described the idea of the re-barbarisation of Europe as dreadful nonsense. He believed disputes nowadays were less frequently settled by war than at any period. For one reason, the European nations were now mostly an organised system of national armies, and citizen armies make for peace. Mr Douglas (Auckland) said the conference had been discussing the supreme question of defence. The colonies realised that a catastrophe meant the ruin of this great Empire, and they were ready to supply the Motherland with men, snips, and money. "Tell us what you want us to do, and we will do it !" (Cheers.) Turning to the subject of discussion, he said the newspapers missed being literature through want of time. Their primary purpurpose was not the cultivation of literary style, but the presentation of news, which was never so well and promptly done as to-day. He believed the Press at Home and in the colonies were honestly striving to maintain the traditions already won, and if they were maintained the Press would remain a great and beneficent force.