Empire Outposts

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 989, 4 June 1930, Page 11

Empire Outposts

DOMINIONS OFFICE CHANGED 0 Mr. Thomas New Secretary PAVING WAY TO EMPIRE CONFERENCE IMPORTANT changes in the consideration given the Dominions in their relation to the Imperial Government have been made by the separation of the Dominions and the Colonies offices, each of which will now have a permanent head. Mr. J. H. Thomas, Lord Privy Seal, is the new Secretary of State for Dominions. The change is significant in view of the coming Imperial Conference.

British Official Wireless Reed. Noon. RUGBY, Tuesday. Mr. J. H. Thomas, Lord Privy Seal, has been appointed Secretary of State for the Dominions, and the offices of Dominions and Colonies are to be separated. The Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, in the House of Commons, in referring to the separating

of the offices of the Dominions and the Colonies, said at present there were two Under-Secretaries of State

for these offices, but they still had one common head. He proposed now to put a head over each office. This ought to have been done before, but it was so iiiconvenient that his predecessors, as well as himself, had delayed it. The economic relations with the Dominions had always been a matter of great interest to this Government. There had been exchanges of views on this subject with the Dominions, and the whole question was being thoroughly examined in preparation for what would be one of the most important discussions in the Imperial Conference. He was anxious that contacts already established between Mr. Thomas and the Dominion Ministers should be further and more effectively used by both for Imperial purposes, and in connection with our own unemployment problem. He had therefore asked Mr. Thomas to take the Dominions Office. That would necessitate a readjustment of the machinery set up for dealing with unemployment, and that would be announced in due course. In regard to the contacts established by Mr. Thomas with the Dominions mentioned by the Prime Minister, it may be recalled that Mr. Thomas was secretary for the Colonies in the Labour Government of 1924. There was at that time no separate Dominions Office. Mr. Thomas has also visited Canada during his present term of office, as Minister in Charge of Unemployment.