Lord Grey, who was entertained by the Royal Colonial Institute
to dinner on Tuesday, delivered a very interesting, eloquent, and optimistic speech on Canada and the Empire. With the exception of an occasional crank, it was impossible, he declared, to find an annexationist within the whole length and breadth of the Dominion. With equal confidence he asserted that there was no expectation in Canada that the recent elections should be used as an argument for introducing any changes in the tariff of the United Kingdom. It could not be too clearly understood that Canadians were as opposed to the idea of interfering with our local affairs as they were to any interference on our part with theirs. Turning to the relation of Canada to the Empire, he quoted Sir Wilfrid Laurier's saying that the twentieth century belonged to Canada, and said that Canada's only chance of making good that proud boast was by becoming the strongest factor in the strongest Empire of the century. Sir Wilfrid Laurier's Reciprocity policy was in no sense a policy of disloyalty to closer con- nexion with the Motherland, or inconsistent with a jealous regard for the best interests of the Empire. In voting it down the Canadians—whose whole history was founded on sacrifice—showed, not for the first time, that they set love of country above material interests.
Previous page
