Further Festivities

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

Further Festivities

LONDON, June 11

The Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, at the Constitutional luncheon, in proposing the toast of "The Guests," said that the debates of the past week upon Imperial defence must have caused a glow of pride in every man with Imperial instincts. People recognised that the parental stage of Great Britain's attitude towards the colonies was over now, and that they had reached the stage of formal equality. He was unable even to conceive what form the general closer organised unity of the Empire would take, but the form for purposes of defence might take shape in the development of a Defence Committee, on which the voices of men of colonial experience had already proved of great value.

Mr J. O. Fairfax (Sydney), in responding, said that the delegates had been struck very forcibly by the way in which party lines, if not obliterated, were yet completely ignored. They had heard much which would help them to impress Imperial ideas upon the people of their own lands. He * hoped that other proconsuls would follow the examples of Lords Cxtrzon and Milner and visit the Dominions.

The Duke of Wellington's garden party at Apslcy House to the Press delegates included the Ambassadors and foreign oificer competing at the Olympia. . In the evening the Ripht Hon. A. J. Balfour, Lords Crewe, Northcote, Hindlip, Middleton, and others grave dinner parties to the delegates and their ladies. Later in the evening the Duchess of Sutherland pave a reception at Stafford House at which 2000 people were present.