UNIONIST CONFERENCE.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18233, 18 November 1924, Page 12

UNIONIST CONFERENCE.

WELCOME TO THE EMPIRE DEVELOPMENT BRANCH.

(rtOM OUB OWS COREZCTOJTOEirr.) LONDON. October £». An important resolution at ' the Unionist Conference held at Newcastle last week was one of welcoming the formation of the Empire Development Branch, which, it will bo remembered, was initiated by Mr il. A. Philips, a New Zealand's?, who is now living at Farnham. Us ha? l;c-;n mdetatigable in his voluntary work, and has managed to interest a large number of overseas people in the campaign for spsrading enlightenment regarding Empire food. At the conference whi(h \va9 attended bv many thousands or delegates, Mr John Fanner, also of Kirnhaci, moved the yellowing 1 resolution: as the first item on the programme of tho Unionist Party is to strengthen and develop tho British Empire, this conference heartily .welcomes the formation of the Empire Development Branch, created with the specific object of spreading throughout the eleccorat?o the much-BECrted education on Empire trade sr.A Imperial Preference, further, thy conference urges all associations to tako full advantage of the valuable assistance that can now be afforded in this mo3t important connexion. '' Mr Farmer related that upon arriving in Newcastle he read the following description of their programme:—"A blank banner." That was untrue (cheers)— and at his own cost he had supplied the Teply: "Imperial Preference i 3 the stepping-stone for the solution of unemployment." (Cheers, during which Mr Farmer unfolded a big poster displaying the words.) The question, lie argued, was not so much of drawing the Colonies to the Mother Country—-they were standing with open arms ready to receive us—but rather of drawing the Mother Country nearer to the Colonies. Imperial Preference was the real road to an extension of our trade. "Let us," he added, "make it tho first plank of our platform work in the constituencies; it will restore to oiir country at least a measure of the prosperity which we enjoyed in pre-war days.'' The Unionist Party, he claimed, put the Empire before party.

The Imperial Vision. Mr Philips, who said that he was a New Zealander, and as such spoke as an Overseas delegate, urged that this question was bound up with the intense patriotism and loyalty _of the Dominions. He traced the history of the formation of the Empire Development Branch at the Central Office, and said itw as a movement which was calculated to enlist the help of a great body of men and women interested in the Empire, and having in many cases, first-hand, acquaintance with it; "We are," he -said,/'passing through very grave times. AVe have got to be up and doing. and look ahead. Would that oar legislators iu the past had. looked ahead and had the Imperial vision! If so, we should not have been in the position that we are in to-day. Dame Caroline Bridgeman, chairman of the Women's Unionist Organisation, drew attention to an experiment in propaganda work for Empire development, which hadf been instituted on tho women's side of the Central Office, and to which the Empire Exhibition had given a tremendous impetus. They had at the Central Office sample boxes of Empire products—Canadian fruit, cheese, and tined salmon; Indian tea and rice; West Indian sugar andcocoa; East African- coffee;, Australian fruits and South African raisins. These boxes were of varying sizes, ranging in prices from 6s 6d to five guineas. Thousands of men and -women had not the slightest idea what the Empire was able to produce, to say nothing of any l knowledge of the fact that the Empire provided us with the only expanding market available to us. If we took more of the products of the Empire, there would te a bigger demand for our shipping, and she did not think those ships would go out empty. Mr T. Holtby (Buckrose) urged upon tie political workers to get these sample boxes into the constituencies and to show them at meetings. •Mrs Baxter (East Cumberland) asked Mr Phillips to issue a pamphlet giving to housewives the prices of Empire food. "As a housekeeper," she added, "I am not afraid to challenge any foreign goods, even in price." (Hear, hear.) f The resolution was carried unanimously. ?

Dispelling Old Prejudice

The Morning Post;" which was chiefly instrumental in launching Mr Phillips's scheme, referred to the Empire Development Branch in a leading article prior to the Unionist Conference.

"We rejoice." said the writer, "especially in the precedence given in the counsels of the Conference to this reSolution, because we may take the credit.of haying first, urged the desirability of adopting the movement which the resolution applauds, though it is to a New Zealander, Mr M. A. Phillips, that the initiation of the movement itself belongs. He will no doubt explain to the Newcastle Conference, what he has already explained so successfully on majiy public platforms up and down the country, why Be and his voluntary fellow-workers from the Dominions ' are interesting themselves in British politics. Commanding the goodwill which is always given, to Britons from Overseas in this country, and dealing with Empire Trade and Preference from a point of view which is new to our people at Home, and with a direct and practical knowledge of the working and the effect of Empire Preference, they are able at once to arouse a new interest and to dispel old 1 prejudice and misunderstanding. An Invaluable Auxiliary.

"Already these Dominion missioners have done muoh to serve the great cause which they have at heart; and now that they nave been bniught together under the Empire Development Branch of the Unionist organisation they may, if their services are systematically directed and fully utilised, prove an invaluable auxiliary to the efforts of the Unionist Party in promoting the consolidation of the Empire. We ■are glad thai the Unionist Central Office was prompt .to recognise the importance of this Dominion movement: and that a Dominions Committee, of which Mr Phillips is chairman, has been formed to direct the activities of the Empire Development Branch. Hie endorsement which iB about to be given to the enterprise by the Newcastle Conference should imply that henceforward not only the benevolent approval, but the fulL weight and influence of the party organisation will be round _at the back of the Dominions Committee. | Heed o£ Effective Backing. I 'To neglect or hold lightly such invaluable assistance wouldindeed be a strange perversity. It would be as if ttie British Government in 1914 had discouraged the sending from Overseas of those magnificent troops with which the Dominions reinforced our fightine line. Fortunately, there is no reason

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to suspect any such perversity. The only admonition that would not be out of place is that a movement of this kind demands for its b«6t effects a backing that is neither intermittent nor half-hearted. Thoroughness is the condition of success. Imperial Preference as a policy is a vital part of the programme of the Unionist Party; and no more hopeful means than this could have been devised of popularising that policy among an electorate that has never .thought about it in it? true bearings.."