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Details

Latitude
-16.9404
Longitude
145.95891
Start Date
1914-10-14
End Date
1914-10-14

Description

parliament.no: 6
session.no: 1
period.no: 0
chamber: REPS
page.no: 157.0
speaker: Mr PAGE
speaker.id: KXO
title: GRANT TO BELGIUM
electorate: Maranoa
type: Questions
state: QLD
party: Labor (1891-)
role: Not Available
incumbent party: False
poet: Alfred Tennyson
poem: Oenone

Sources

ID
td14ed

Extended Data

index
1285.0
para
- It is not for me to say; it is enough for me to give the money. It is amazing to find honorable members raising these " Little Peddlington " objections, just, as I have said, as though they were municipal councillors instead of members of a great National Parliament. I have heard Labour men on the hustings in Queensland expressing their pride in belonging to this great National Parliament; and the arguments we have heard to-day are not in keeping with the occasion. Surely honorable members do not desire that the Prime Minister should go into details regarding the distribution; and it will be humiliating to the recipients to think that this money has not been given with good grace. I am sorry the question is going to be put to the vote, and I can only say that my own vote will go in favour of the gift. Mr.FISHER (Wide Bay- Prime Minister and Treasurer) [4.58]. - I remind those honorable members who, while they oppose the motion, declare that they do not do so through any disloyalty, that the question does not involve loyalty at all; it is simply a question of whether this Parliament thinks it is interpreting the views of the people of Australia. Personally, I think we are interpreting those views in thanking the Belgian nation for what they have done in support of their own rights and in protection of the rights and liberties of civilization. It is a great privilege and honour for a young Dominion like this - perhaps the most prosperous country in the world to-day - to be able to ask the Belgian nation to accept this money. I trust the Government of Belgium, as I would the Government of any other country, to use this small tribute in the way they think best. The honorable member for Bourke, unwittingly no doubt, did me an injustice when he said that I had not indicated how the money was to be used. I stated definitely and clearly that I hoped the money would be used to, in some small way, heal the wounds inflicted on a brave people in defence of their own rights - & people who have, I think, nobly realized the lines of the great English poet - Because right is right, to follow right Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence. This they have done, and not only for their own sakes. I should have liked to see the Belgian Government distribute this money in Brussels, and, though I have little hope of that at the present time, I trust that the day is not far distant when they once more will be in their own capital city. All that I can do in Parliament or out of it to help to bring about that result I shall willingly do. At any rate, I trust the Belgian Government, notwithstanding all that has been said against them ; and I hope and believe that this small tribute will be given cheerfully by the people of Australia, and will be used in the best possible way to alleviate the sufferings of the Belgian people. I suggest to the honorable member for Bourke, and those who think with him, that they should not call for a division, but, if they persist in doing so, I must ask honorable members on both sides to support the motion. Amendment negatived. Question - That the motion be agreed to - put. The House divided. Majority...... 42 AYES NOES Question so resolved in the affirmative. Debate resumed from Sth October (vide page 38), on motion by Mr. Jolley - That the following Address-in-Reply to the Speech of His Excellency thu Governor-General be agreed to by this House: - May it please Your Excellency - We, the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Common wen 1th of Australia, in Parliament assembled. he«r to express our loyalty to our Most Gracious Sovereign, and to thank Your Excellency for the Speech which you have been pleased to address to Parliament.