Speeches Delivered in Canada in the Autumn of 1908

rings as that which I see before me to-night. In the present instance I have indeed had no time for preparation, but the subject is one with which I have had so intimate and so recent an acquaintance that I may perhaps be able to say something sensible and interesting about it, though without any attempt at elaboration. The subject about which I propose to speak to you, therefore, is South Africa. But do not be alarmed at the prospect. South Africa has been, and to some extent still is, a topic which excites bitter political controversy. Let me say at the outset that I shall not refer to any question of a political or controversial nature. Putting politics entirely aside, the problems of South Africa are extremely interesting, and, in some respects, very similar to yours here in Canada. There are also, no doubt, many and great differences, to some of which I shall presently allude. But I think that a comparison of the conditions of the various younger countries of the Empire is always full of interest and of instruction. And if I read aright the spirit which animates the Canadian Clubs, I think that information about other parts of the Empire is always welcomed by them, and that it all helps to that education in the wider citizenship which it is one of their chief objects to promote. To begin with. One of the points of similarity which strikes one at once between Canada and South Africa is the problem of distance. The vastness of both countries, the great st...