THE main news in the Malvern Gazette a century ago was the visit by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon Austen Chamberlain.

The event was described as one of the largest meetings ever held in Malvern, the crowd overflowing from the hall at the Assembly Rooms into the corridors.

The hall was "elaborately decorated" for the occasion and carried the slogans "The day of Empire is come", "I hope to give you more employment", "Learn to think Imperially", "Either we must come closer together or we must infallibly drift apart" and "Let us fight for something worth fighting for".

In the chair was a Colonel Twynham, who introduced the great man and the other speaker, Mr A Baldwin MP, and added that this "was a Conservative meeting and no questions would be allowed".

Mr Chamberlain spoke about free trade and tariffs and pointed out the achievements of the Conservative and Unionist Party in recent years.

"We have a record of which none of us must be ashamed," he said. "We have won back the Sudan to civilisation, we have won back that for which General Gordon laid down his life.

"We have done our fair share in the civilisation and development of the darker part of Africa and we have settled by peaceful means the difficult questions which arose between ourselves and France and Germany.

"And the traditional friendship of this country with the Kings of Italy and Portugal, assisted by the recent interchange of kingly visits, was never stronger than it is today.

"Our relations with the great Republic of the United States are now better than they have been since that republic came into existence.

"And we have concluded an alliance with a rising nation of the Far East, by which the influence of both Japan and ourselves is strengthened in that part of the world where our interests are so large and so numerous."

"We are a great Imperial colonising race," he said towards the end of the speech, which was received with loud and prolonged applause.