NEW ERA DAWNING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 122, 25 May 1932, Page 5

NEW ERA DAWNING.

IMPERIAL ECONOMIC LINKS. RESULTS FBOM OTTAWA. SIR JAMES PARR'S HOPES. That the Ottawa Economic Conference would, inaugurate a new era. for the British Empire was the opinion confidently voiced, by Sir James Parr, Leader of Hie Legislative Council, this afternoon, in the course of an address at a complimentary luncheon tendered him by the Auckland Creditmen s Club. Sir Jam'es said that the old constitutional issues would no longer be the main questions 011 the agenda paper at future Imperial Conferences. The last constitutional link left was the Kingship. New links of business and trado had to be forged to hold the Empire together, otherwise the otivious cracks in the Imperial construction would widen, and disintegration would set in. Instead of the old type of conference, Sir James predicted that hereafter there would be every three years an Imperial Economic Conference for the promotion of the economic union of the Empire by reciprocal Imperial preference. To that end there would be evolved <1 permanent Imperial Secretariat in London, representative of all the Dominions, which would consult and advise, not every three years, but all the time, on the ever-changing aspect of Imperial trade relations. Thus would be developed the inexhaustible resources of the British Empire. "This is not merely my view/' added Sir James. "A great change has come over English public opinion. It is notable that the Trades Union Congress of Britain, representing 4,000,000 workers, last month met Mr. J. H. Thomas, Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, and spoke strongly in favour of the economic unity of the Empire and of the creation of an Imperial Secretariat in London. Great issues are at stake at Ottawa, and painstaking preparations are absolutely necessary. The hour of destiny has come. Is it to be the birth of a new Empire, or is it to be the decline and fall of the British Commonwealth? I say that all the omens are favourable. New Zealand can make a bargain at Ottawa which can put the New Zealand farmer on his feet. Get the farmer right, and you get New Zealand right." (Applause.)