EMPIRE LIAISON

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 442, 25 August 1928, Page 5

EMPIRE LIAISON

DEVELOPMENT OF PLAN MEN FROM UNIVERSITY (THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, To-day. The status of Mr. Berendsen, an External Affairs officer, was raised by Mr. P. Fraser during the discussion on the estimates for the Prime Minister’s department, in the House of Representatives last evening. Mr. Coates said that as head of the External Affairs Department in the Dominion, Mr. Berendsen had an important part in the scheme, whereby it was hoped to have an effective exchange of important information- on trade, economics and national policy with other parts of the Empire. There was now a liaison officer, Mr. P. B. Nicholls, representing the Foreign Office, stationed in the Dominion, while a member of the New Zealand Civil Service held a corresponding post in the Foreign office at Home. Soon is was hoped to send a number of men from the New Zealand University Home to positions in the Dominion Office. These would be appointed by a board to be set up shortly. The general idea as yet in its early stages, was to get' a rota of civil servants whose close knowledge of overseas conditions would effect closer Imperial relationships. The cost would not be great, but the value would be permanent. Mr. Nicholls, the officer in New Zealand, added Mr. Coates, had already saved the Government hundreds of pounds in cables. Mr. Coates also discussed the question of Dominion representation at the Geneva Labour Conference and at the International Labour Bureau at Geneva. These were important questions. The cost would be high, £6,000, but the Government was considering the question and did not wish past dissociation to be interpreted as an expression of no-confidence in the League of Nations. Departmental estimates disposed of to-day were Internal Affairs, the Pi ime Minister’s Department, Pensions, Defence and Naval Defence.