IMPERIAL AFFAIRS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 30 November 1927, Page 7

IMPERIAL AFFAIRS

NEW ZEALAND’S SHARE BRITAIN’S APPRECIATION. ADDRESS BY MR. AMERY. Wellington, Nov. 29. The Rt. Hon. L. M. Amery’s principal lunction to-day was a luncheon given by the Government, at which some 600 guests w’ere present. The Premier, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, presiding. reviewed the guest's career and mentioned amongst other things his great capacity as a linguist, pointing out what an enormous advantage it was to have a statesman who could address various nationalities in their own language. He asked their guests to take hack with them this message

"New Zealand wishes to live within the Empire, to trade with the Empire, and to grow by means ot Empire migration.” Mr. Amery replied in a speech 011 broad imperialistic lines. New Zealand, he said, had never failed in her share. She had shown herself willing to join in all imperial matters. In the maintenance of defence, not only on her own shores, but at the Singapore Base, there was an act oi co-operation, and not of menace. What New Zealand had done was deeply appreciated by the people of Britain. He alluded to what the Army of Britain, at first small and then swollen to enormous dimensions, and what the Navy had done to the successful termination of the war, and went on to'say what amazed him when he looked back over the years that followed the war. was the way that Britain had carried on. She had met her debts, and had never weakened* the fabric of her credit. Britain had unflinchingly faced industrial problems, hut she had found a means of coping with them. There might be individual cases where men were willing to live on the dole, but the great mass of the people were anxious and willing to work. The great bulk of the men wanted to get rid of the dole as soon as it was possible. Despite all the difficulties of the Great War, Britain had gone on more boldly with social reforms than ever before, said Mr. Amery. Money was being spent in research, into the productivity and development of industry nnd every year a richer and richer harvest would be gained. From this expenditure fiscal preference also had heen changed from a theoretical matter to a practical one and was a new aspect of Imperial responsibility There were many parts of the Empire, whose whole prosperity was de-

pendent upon the operation of the fiscal system. He could not doubt that there was a limit to the prosperity and development we could create in a generation or two. INTER-EMPIRE TRADE. URGENT NECESSITY FOR DEVELOPMENT. . Wellington, Nov. 29. A reception to Mr. Amery was held to-day by the Commercial Travellers and Warehousemen’s Association, the chief guest being described as “the chief commercial traveller for John Bull and Co.” “We value the status we have,’’ said the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, “and we take full opportunity of expressing our views, but if Britain, in her judgment, deems it advisable to take a line of action then Mr. Amery can convey this message to the people’ at Home: ‘New Zealand will be found standing by the Motherland.’ “My remarks,” he continued, “refer to the higher side of our national life, and to the thoughts that run through the minds ot every citizen in our country to allow them to foster trade within the Empire.” Mr. Amery stressed the urgent necessity for the development of interEmpire trade and each country’s resources. He expressed his conviction that they were only at the beginning of the development of the British Empire. He thought the United States could show us a good example ol what could be done with the resources ol a great and varied territory. There they had more railways than the rest of the world put together ; a greater use of mechanical power, whether electric or steamdriven, than the rest of the world; a greater production and consumption of steel and iron and many other essential commodities upon which modern industry was based than the rest of the world put together, and they had done it on a territory about a quarter the size of the British Empire. The people who hgd done it were mainly of our own stock and the capital had largely been drawn from Great Britain. There was nothing the United States had done that the Empire could not do if only we ceased thinking in a water tight compart- 1 irient and realised the advantage of pooling our resources.

There was no reason why we should not exceed anything the United States had done to date. The resources and the ability were there. IHe appealed to the commercial travellers to foster Empire trade in New Zealand, not onlv on the grounds of sentiment but also of business. The prosperity of New Zealand, he said.*was dependent upon the prosperity of Great Britain. After his address. Mr. Amery was presented with the honorary membership badge of the association.