EMPIRE POLITICS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 August 1938, Page 7

EMPIRE POLITICS

CONFERENCE TO BE HELD IN 1940

PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATES. ' BRITISH BRANCH ACCEPTS INVITATION. LONDON, July 23. The United Kingdom branch of the Empire Parliamentary Association at its annual meeting this week accepted the invitation of the New Zealand branch to send a delegation to the Dominion during the 1940 Centennial celebrations. It expressed the hope that “the visit and the Empire Parliamentary Conference which will take place that year will be productive of an interchange of views on common problems of value to the Empire as a whole. A resolution expressing “grateful appreciation and cordial thanks” for the invitation was moved by Sir John Simon, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and seconded by Mr T. Johnston, Labour M.P. for West Stirlingshire. The conference will be held in October or November, 1940, and members of the British delegation will be selected after the general election to be held before' that date. Sir John said the year 1940 would be the occasion of the Centennial celebrations in New Zealand where, in November, 1840, the charter was issued which created New Zealand a separate entity in the Empire. It would be an occasion of very great significance and very great interest, and he doubted if there was any part of the British Commonwealth which could show a more remarkable development in that span of time than New Zealand.

MACAULAY’S ESSAY RECALLED. The Chancellor recalled that it was in 1840 that there appeared in the Edinburgh Review an essay by Lord Macaulay containing the famous passage in which he speculated on a time when a visitor from New Zealand might stand on a broken London Bridge and view the ruins of St Paul’s. When the delegation went to New Zealand in 1940 it would, however, be able to report that St Paul’s was still standing and, thanks to the efforts of Mr Herbert Morrison, M.P., London’s bridges were still intact, and were even being strengthened, while the people themselves retained their ancient virility! Sir John said he thought the occasion of the conference would be of very great usefulness. BRITISH CITIZENSHIP. Mr Johnston said that in these days when the very existence of free Parliamentary institutions was being threatened in so many parts of ■ the world, it was not without some significance that the New Zealand invitation should have been so cordially extended by a Government composed as the present one was. “Speaking as a Scotsman,” said Mr Johnston, “it. is of special pleasure to some of us that New Zealand, which is so largely inhabited by descendants of the northern races in Britain, should be taking a lead at the other 1 end of the world in manifesting the intensity of its British citizenship.” The meeting was presided over by the Speaker of the House of Commons, Captain E. A. Fitzroy, and attended by the Prime Minister, Mr Chamberlain, and other Parliamentary leaders. Mr Chamberlain moved the adoption of the annual report, which, he said, was a most important one, covering the Coronation activities, the Empire Parliamentary Conference of that year, and the recent visit to Australia. LOYALTY TO THE CROWN. Looking back on the Coronation, said the Prime Minister, it could be seen that it was not only a very splendid spectacle, but, by its emphasis on the loyalty to the Crown, common in all parts of the Empire, it had made a most lasting impression, creating a new sense of partnership and unity among the constituent members of the British Commonwealth. The report, in particular, called attention to the interesting link created by the fact that the meeting of the Empire Parliamentary 'Association’s conference immediately preceded the Imperial Conference. At the earlier meeting a good deal of exploratory work as to the trend of opinion on various subjects, such as immigration, was carried out and was of the utmost value. Referring to foreign affairs, Mr Chamberlain said that, whatever different views might be held, all agreed that it was very desirable that the Empire should not fall out on this subject, but as far as possible show a united front to the rest of the world. In that way the Empire was more likely to exercise a far greater influence. The best preparation for harmony and unity was information, and all would rejoice to see as one of the results of Sir Howard D’Egville’s work in New Zealand, Australia and Canada, that study groups and circles had been formed, for the purpose, not of formulating policy in foreign affairs, but of acquainting people with the facts.