NEXT IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 365, 20 February 1937, Page 5

NEXT IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

MOST MOMENTOUS. UTILISING RESOURCES. Optimism of Prime Minister Expressed. Press Association—Copyright. Christchurch, Last Night. “I ■will soon be taking part in an Imperial Conference which will probably be the most important ever to have been held,” said the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, at a civic reception in Christchurch yesterday. “I am optimistic enough to believe that those who will assemble there will be able to rite high enough to devise suitable methods of utilising to the full the huge resources contained in the territories over which their flag flies.” The purpose of the conference would be to develop as far as. possible within the British commonwealth of nations, the Prime Minister continued. International trade was a secondary consideration, but it could be taken for granted that if all the members of the British commonwealth were prosperous and wealthy communities the other nations of the world would be eager to trade with them.

“There is ample room on the earth’s surface for the whole of huanity,” Mr. Savage said. “No particular section has' any right to a monopoly. We in New Zealand have no strong claim to the territory we hold unless we secure the population necessary to develop it to the full. That in itself would be our surest method of defence, for it would no longer provide the same temptation to covetousness of other peoples. “Our responsibility as the Government of this country will be to see that newcomers have a place to lay their heads and a right and opportunity to earn a living. The problem is one which affects the other Dominions equally with ourselves, but J make bold to say that the Imperial Conference will face its responsibilities in this respect.'”