AN IMPERIAL APPEAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2558, 20 July 1909, Page 3

AN IMPERIAL APPEAL.

LORD ROSEBERY'S GREAT SPEECH. “LITTLE ENGLAND” AND -HER. CHILDREN. ’ ; . It will be remembered that the cable reported early last -month that Lord Rosebery had made a' splendid speech on June' 5 at the banquet of welcome tendered by the British press to. the delegates to the Press Conference. The cable message, unfortunately, consisted chiefly of enthusiastic comments on the character of the speech, and contained very little of what Lord Rosebery actually said. We .print fuller extracts below. “Welcome -Home,” was the keynote of the speech. “Yes, Gentlemen,” said Lord Rosebery, “that is the motto of this occasion—welcome to your home. (Renewed cheers.) Many of you have never seen your home," and you will see something in the course of the next fortnight of which I will not boast, l at which in. its way unmatched in the world. (Cheers.) You will see an rncient and stately civilisation. You will see that embodied in our abbeys and cathedrals, built in the age of faith, and surviving to testify that faith is not'dead, in Britain. (Renewed cheers.) Y'ou will see it in the ancient colleges of Oxford and Cambridge and St. Andrew’s and Aberdeen—shrines of learning, which are venerable not only from their antiquity. Y'ou will see as yon pass about the country little villages clustered about the heaven-directed spires as they have clustered for centuries, and you will see the ancient mother of all Parliaments, the most venerable progenitor of free institutions, the Houses of Commons. (Cheers.) I cannot promise you an fe-'en greater pleasure in seeing the House of Lords, because that will not be sitting during the period of yotir visit. ( ! Oli, eh, and laughter.) Throughout the country you will sec those manor houses where the squirearchy of Great Britain have lived for centuries, almost all of them inhabited before the discovery of America —a civilisation of country life which I advise you to see on your present visit, because when you next come it niav not be here for you to see it. (Laughte’r.) Speeding onwards from these rural scenes, from all this whiolf is embodied history, and which represents the antiquity and the tradition of a thousand years, go on to the teeminrr communities which represent the manufactures, the energy, and the alertness of the commercial life of Great Britain; and, last of all, surrounding all and guarding it, you will see a prodigious armada and a prodigious but always inadequate army. All of these, gentlemen, are yours as much as ours —your possessions, your pride, and your home.” (Cheers.) After a witty and fanciful exposition of a. dream that he dreamed —that the British Parliament might pack up and go on a two-year tour of the Empire, the Peers being charged steamer fares!—Lord Rosebery became serious and eloquent on the topic of Imperial defence. He said: “Y’ou will forgive me if I come next, and at once, to what is by far the most • vital topic that you will have, to discuss at thrt conference, or which concerns our Empire as a whole —I mean that of Imperial defence. (Cheers.) I do not know that I have ever seen a condition of things in Europe so remarkable, so .peaceful, and in some respects so menacing, as the condition which exists at this moment. There is a hush in Europe—a hush in which one might almost hear a leaf fall to the ground. There is an absolute absence of any questions which ordinarily lead to war. One of the great empires which is sometimes supposed to menace peace, is entirely engrossed with its domestic affairs. Another great Eastern empire, which lias furnished a perpetual .problem for European statesmen, has taken a new lease- of life and youth in searching for liberty and constitutional reform. All then, forbedes peace, and yet, at the same time, combined with this total absence of all questions of friction, there never was in the history of the world so threatening and overpowering a preparation fo r war. That is the sign which I regard as the most ominous for forty years. “It has been a platitude to say that all Europe is an armed camp, and for forty years it has been true that all nations have boon facing each other armed to the teeth, and has been, in some respects, a guarantee of peace. Now, what do we see? Now, without any tangible reason, we see the nations preparing new arms. ’They cannot, indeed, arm any more •men upon land. They have to seek now armaments upon the sea, piling up this enormous preparation in the time of profoundest peace. YVe live in the midst of what I think was called by Petrarch, ‘Silens Bellum’ —a silent warfare in which not » drop of blood A shed in anger, but in which the very last drop is extracted from the body, by the lancets of the European statesmen. I admit there are features of that war which must cause special anxiety to the friends of heat Britain and of the British. Empire, but 1 will not dwell upon this tonight. I will only say this—that I will ask you, while in this country, to compare carefully the armaments of Europe with our preparations to meet them, and give your impressions to the Empire in return. I feel confident in the. resolution and power' of this country to meet any reasonable conjunction of affaire; but, when I see this bursting out of navies everywhere, when I see one country alone asking for £25,000,000- extra taxation for warlike preparations, and the .unprecedented sacrifices which are asked on the same grounds, I do begin to feel uneasy as to the outcome of it all, and wonder, where it will stop, and if it is merely, going to bring Europe into a state of' barbarism, or whether it will cause a catastrophe of which/ the workmen of the world will say, ‘YVe will have no more of this madness and foolery which is grinding us to powder.’ “Gentlemen, we can. and will build Dreadnoughts, or whatever the newest type of ship may be—(loud cheers) —as long as we have a shilling to spend or a man to put into them. (Renewed cheers.) All that we can and will do, hut be sure that even that .will not be enough. I think it may bo your duty to, take back to,your dominions across the seas this message and this impression—that some personal duty and responsibility for national defence rests on every man and citizen of the Empire. (Loud cheers.) Yips, gentlemen, take that message back with you. Tell your peoples, if they can believe it, the deplorable way in which Europe is lapsing into militarism,' and the pressure that is put upon this little England to defend itself, its liberty and yours. (Loud cheers.) 'But take' this message back with you—that the Old Country is right at heart; that there is no failing or weakness in her; and that she rejoices in her giant dominions beyond the seas. (Cheers.) For her own salvation she must look to herself, and that failing she must look to you. (Cheers.) I know that whatever may be the outcome of this visit, you will return strengthened to your high func-

tions as guides of your communities in the matters of the nation, and you will return, I hope, convinced of the necessity of the mission of the communion of Commonwealths, which constitutes the British,Empire. Having come, I hope, believers in' that faith, you will return to your home missionaries of the most extensive and most unselfish empire which is known to history. (Cheers.) “I will- end as I began. After all, I may speak/to you for hours, and I caii only sum up what I have to Ray in the two simple words with which I began—‘Welcome home’ —welcome home to the home of your language, and your liberties, and your face —welcome home to the source of your Parliaments, your free institutions, and of this immeasur-' able Empire—welcome home to supreme head of all these Dominions, your Sovereign and mine, who is not merely the King of Great Britain, but the King of hearts. (Loud cheers.) YVelcome homo to' this, and to anything besides that wo in all brotherhood and affection can offer you—welcome home!” (Loud cheers.)