24 JUNE 1911, Page 3

Upwards of fifty representatives of the Dominion Parlia- ments now

visiting England were entertained by a Joint Committee of both Houses at a luncheon in Westminster Hall on Monday. Lord Rosebery proposed the toast of " Our Par- liamentary Colleagues from the Oversea Dominions." The welcome which they offered their guests was not, he declared. free from embarrassment owing to the domestic opera- tions in which they were engaged. "It was washing-day wit i us." As to the result of these operations there were two opini(w • —one that the ancient mother of Parliaments would be renovat, by the process, while others thought she would emerge with on one leg to stand on. Personally he was content to offer ti; opinion that no Parliament in any part of the world bad yr, reached its final stage, and that Parliaments ware made for the people, and not the people for Parliaments. The intere,7 of the Empire was common to them all, and at this solemn moment of the Coronation they might well indulge in dreams His own dreams were limited to two—the first of a, Parliameie of Empire, of which the Imperial Conference was the germ, and the second a vision of peace, to which the events of last few months had lent encouragement. It was, at least..: great advance that this great Empire and the great Republi- which sprang from a common stock had joined hands and sai,. they will do what in them lies to discourage war and promot, peace. To carry that vision into some hope of practicabilit.: they needed unison and strength. But strength could not obtained by disarmament. " We shall only find strength i the resolution and contentment of our people and their pre- paredness for war."