EMPIRE UNITY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 139, 25 March 1930, Page 8

EMPIRE UNITY.

LORD BLEDISLOE’S VIEWS. THE PRIMARY INDUSTRIES. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, March 24. The need for Imperial solidarity if the various parts of the British Empire are to make the most of their opportunities was stressed by the Gov-ernor-General, Lord Bledisloe, when addressing the farmers’ conference this morning. His Excellency also added a word pointing out the dependence oi the urban population on the success ol the farming community. Lord, Bledisloe said it was a genuine joy to him to attend the present gathering, albeit as Governor-General of New Zealand, where British farmers, New Zealand farmers, and farmers from other parts of the Empire were met together -in friendly conference. “Most of us assembled here,” he said, “belong to an island home. Me are indeed in a geographical sense insular, but none of us, I hope, is insular in aim or outlook. If the British Empire, to which we are all very proud to belong, is to be the greatest power for good in the world, as I am sure we all wish it to be, and the chief engine of cultured progress in every direction of national life, there must be no myopia, no narrowness in_ our outlook. ' The chief antidote to insularity is undoubtedly Imperialism, not as a mere phase or sentiment, but as a vital force which ‘shall direct the activities of all our lives. The main handicap, in my judgment, to sane and constructive Imperialism is mutual ignorance—ignorance of each other’s environment, objectives and difficulties, even in the occupation we are all engaged in, farming, the most vital and most fundamental in the world.

“Ever since I sat on the Empire Marketing Board, just on its formation, as representative of the farming community of the Homeland,” continued Lord Bledisioe, “I felt that such periodical conference as this—and I hope it will be possible to continue them at reasonable intervals —■ would proniote the economic welfare of all Empire farmers without detriment to other sections of the community. I should like to emphasise what I ventured to say in the Town Hall the other night, that whatever some of our urban friends may think, it is not in the real interests of the urban community of any country that the farming community should be* other than prosperous. (Applause.) After all, it is the primary industries of the world, and: particularly of this country, upon which the secondary industries of the towns depend in a very large measure, and in this country, unless there is' a perpetual regrading of your urban population with the healthy men whose ancestors at .•east have been in contact with the soil, there is a real danger of national decadence.”