WIDER PATRIOTISM

Hokitika Guardian, 12 May 1932, Page 3

WIDER PATRIOTISM

.SIR AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN

ON TARIFFS

THE OTTAWA CONFERENCE

LONDON, March 31

■Speaking as the guest at a dinner given by the United C-üb, Sir Austen Chamberlain compared the country, three months ago, on the verge of ruiir, to what it is to-day. •

“History might have been different,’ 1 he said, "our sufferings, our trouble.:, and our difficulties might have been

less, if my father’s virion had earlier

been accepted by this country. But tvie change is made, and made in face dl friend and foe, and by the avowal of friend and foe that it is not a temporary expedient, but a permanent alteration. Henceforth, nay, already, we have opened a new chapter, and in the turning of the page a new light has broken through the cloud. I went to visit the British Industries Fair in London and at Birmingham. At both I heard the .same story that never have We had so many inquiries or had so many foreigners visiting the Fail 1 . Everywhere people were expressing surprise. Those two Fairs have exceeded any others I have visited, not only in the enterprise which was shown by the manufacturers, but in the important advances in the goods exhibited and in the methods of ishowmanriiip. Coninig events cast their shadows before:" If the new policy only took effect on March Ist, it was the hope and the confidence that there was to be a new policy that has made the British Industries Fair this year an unexampled and unparalleled success.

INTER-IMPERIAL RELATIONS. “There is one great .section of the new policy which has yet to be written. That is the commercial policy of our inter-Imperial relations. At) the last Imperial Conference the 'Prime Minister of Canada la>d the economic problems of our Commonwealth of Nations before it as the most important subject for consideration. Somehow, I Ido not pause to say by whose Muir, the way was once again barred, and the Conference, so far as it achieved anything, achieved only the break, ng of almost the last political tie which; binds this Commonwealth of Nations> the one to the other. It may be said) that in so dying it registered no more)) than the fact. That is probably true.jj Have you ever tried to describe by one; common term the peoples of the Em- :| pirep You will find none except that! we are subjects of the King, and the., only political tie which holds us i? "ur.| loyalty to a common Crown and to a great tradition. Our common weak ■ rests -on. •, ;oujv-r-emjiiniii.g->„a r , 0 ,,C 1 ? :T1 lp? I l-S wealth. The representatives of ’he ißritßh ’Empire are going to meet at Ottawa. As I read' the proceedings of the last Conference I was father' saddened by the stress' which l eprioen- 1 tatives of Great Britain and e bers from oversea laid upon the ' fact: <T nm here as an Englishman. I am here as. a Canadian, -as an Australian, or S"i:1.l) African.

MEMBERS OF A COMMONWEALTH

“I would sa v to our Vn representatives to the Conference' at Ottawa aiid to others from oversea, ‘Go to Ottawa, not as Englishmen, Canadians, Australians, or South Africans, but go as members of one Commonwealth. *o consider what is good for iis ail. and. when you have found that, yen r?n correct and amend your conchas mo* if need be to suit the particular '■ tei'ests of each.’ We need to cultivate a lmeer thought and a broader patriotism. Tf we don’t do that at home how inn we reproacli the representatives of <<th ,1 r nations of the Commonwealth fo>’ m»! being broadminded and more J'beri 1 P Let us go there not as strangers hut a B brothers. Tf we go in that spirit there will open before us and every Donrniep. ■Colony, and Protectorate a new Page in our history—a page that will greater and more glorious than ;iUv r f the past.’’ ..