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MR. ARTHUR LEE ON “ THE LITTLEENGLAND POLICY.”At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Bristol Conservative Woi ing Men’s Association ldd last night at the St. Philip’s Club, under the presidency of Mr. R. Dugdale, an interesting address on “ The Little England Policy” was given by Mr.Arthur Lea. Amongst those present were Messrs. A. P. Frbrother, W. W. Hyatt, A. Johnston, A. J. Shorter,M. Ball, R. Crease, J. Fretwell, T. Lloyd, C. J. Watkins, R. Harding, E. D. Tricks, A. F. Yillicrs,J. H. Knowles, T. Gould, T Meakin, F. C. Shorter,C. Para dice, N. Pbpe, A. E. Gould, A. H. Harding, D. Boulton, E. Crease, H. Rrownjohn, A. Helps, c. Iu his opening remarks, Mr. Lee said as Englishmen it should be admitted fiat they ought to be thankful for t ) position which the country and tho people had attained. They should be proud of their Empire, and of their soldiers and sailors, whoin timespast had done their best to spread the extent of the Empire, They should also b proud of their Colonists —me who had gone out to tho far parts of tho earth, and they ; ■ ado not only those parts habitable, but their efforts were appreciated by the rest of the world. The British Empire covered one-fifth of thevhole earth, and the Queen reigned ver one-fourth of the population of the whole globe (applause). What were the peculiar characteristics of the Englishman who went out into the Colonies ? He believed -in the first place he laboured earnestly for tho benefit of the subject races with whom ho was brought into ‘ contact, and he went out to make trade free. He didnot^ mean tha; Free Trade was inexistence in all of thei Colonies, but what the Colonist believed in was 1 a fair field and no favour. The fact of possessing ■ uch a great Empire cast upon them a great responsi- 1 bilitv. How were they to protect the commerce which 1was the very lire of our people? That could only lt;be done by a very strong and powerful navy c (applause). The present Government had set themselves the duty of keeping tiro navy strong 1 and in an efficient state, and it was absolutely ! necessary that our coaling stations should be put into a proper state of defence. Therefore they saw that lt;the Government was by no means blind to tho respon- 1 abilities of our great Empire. 11 oud as they were of ( their country and Empire, they did breed one peculiar 1 race of Englishmen which lie did not believe wa3 1 raised in another part of the world, There was one * class who always said this country was in the wronowhen ^disputes arose with other countrie When foreigners found Englishmen acting like that, they 1 thought we were a divided nation, and this injured ' our prestige with foreign nations. He was glad that ' the numbers of such a party were not great; but £ they were very noisy. Perhaps the chief expo I cut of r the Little England party wa Mr. Labouchere. A i former member for Bristol North—Mr. Townsend— j speaking th© other day, criticised tho expenditure upon the navy, the- money spent on the Egyptian 1war, and the proposed outlay for tho Uganda railway, 1 and fr John Morley id also ipoke recently in 1 defence of the policy of the Little Englanders. 5fhis tshowed th© tendency of the Little England party to lt;let the Empire go, and to shirk their sponsibiiity.The speaker proceeded to show the success of tho ' Suez Canal speculation, which was engaged in by lt;j ltd Beaeonsfield in spite of tho strong opposition, of lt;the.LRile England party. He protested against the ‘ canting hypocrisy of the men who held up their handsin pious horror at the action of Dr. Jamc3or, while 1 theywere hounding us to war in the matter of Crete, 1 on behalf of Greece. Our national existence depended 1 upon tho expansion of our Empire, and it was 1 becaus© he saw that there was a drifting on tho part £ of their opponents to join the Little England party that he believed any possible coalition between the Libera' Unionists and he Liberals was gone for ever, i On the motion of tho Chairman, seconded by Mr. i A. F. Farrrothee, a he* ty vote of thanks was passed i , to Mr. Arthur Lee for his address. •
Newspaper Details
Bristol Times and Mirror
Bristol, Gloucestershire, GB
Fri, Mar 05, 1897
Page 6
Full Page
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Anonymous
CA 19 Mar 2023
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