The Daily News. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1622. EMPIRE OBLIGATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 November 1922, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1622. EMPIRE OBLIGATIONS.

When entertained last week by the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Massey directed attention to the great change that has occurred in the relations between the Motherland and the Dominions since it became understood that, in future, the Dominions were to be considered as partners in the Empire, and not as dependencies. Naturally this new status involves obligations that, under present circumstances, cannot be fully carried out without entailing considerable sacrifices and inconveniences on the heads of the Dominion Governments, as well as being detrimental to the best interests of local affairs. Four times in five years has Mr. Massey been called upon to proceed to London and take part in Empire conferences, thus entailing on each occasion an absence of some months from the helm of the Ship of State in New Zealand. In time, no doubt, some more convenient arrangement will be made that will obviate these frequent and expensive trips, though, as Mr. Massey rightly observed, he did not believe in an Imperial Parliament (or Parliament of Empire) which would impose its will on the Dominions. There is much to be said in favor of the creation, as a branch of the Privy Council, of an Empire Council that would be permanently available for conferences with the Imperial Government on Imperial and international affairs, and such a system would obviate the necessity of the presence of, the Premiers of the Dominions except on very exceptional occasions, and at long intervals. The novelty of the new status has not yet worn off, so that possibly the real needs of the occasion are apt to be unduly magnified, and the process of being made much of is still attractive. Besides which the course that was taken recently by the British Premier in relation to the Near East, can always be followed and be quite as effective as a conference. These, however, are matters that will have to be threshed out by the Dominions and the Home Government. What is really of vital importance is that the people of the various Dominions should be induced to think in terms of Empire. The tendency to take a narrow •and parochial view of international affairs and obligations is partly responsible for the unsatisfactory conditions existing in most countries of the world. No remedy for this political astigmatism is likely to prove so effective as the full realisation of the meaning attachable to Empire citizenship, as distinct from merely local partisanship, one being world-wide, while the other is but a speck on an enlarged map. The claim that the British Empire is one of the strongest factors in the peace o', the world to-day cannot be disputed, even although there are certain dangerous ivruptionists in every part of the Empire who, for their own self-glorification, strive to set class against class and recognise no interests but their own.

It is these exceptions which throw tip into prominence the principles of true Imperialism as known to the British race. The unity of purpose and aim that are bound up with the bonds of Empire should' be the guiding motive in national and local activities. At no time such as at present has there, been 1 1 a greater need for the performance of duty as individuals, as communities, ns patriots and Ipiperialists. Mr. Massey certainly 'gave the public much food for reflection as well as stimulus for action.