"SECOND HALF" AT WEMBLEY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18267, 29 December 1924, Page 15

"SECOND HALF" AT WEMBLEY.

♦—_ ASSURANCE OF SUCCESS. AN APPEAL TO THE DOMINIONS. (r»ou ora owx coK&xtrovDxn.) LONDON November 18. ' All the Commissioners of the British Empire Exhibition were the guests last evening at a dinner given by the British Empire League. If people have not been inclined to give much credit to the newspaper reports that the Exhibition would be continued next year r,Piey are now convinced, for Mr L. s! Amery (Colonial Secretary) announced that it was the intention of the Government that the Exhibition should ' go on, and they were determined it ahould succeed. Mr A. F. Roberts was selected to respond to a toast on behalf of the Dominions, which is a compliment to New Zealand and an indication of the position which Mr Roberts has gained among the Exhibition Commissioners, but it was perhaps rather unfortunate for him that he should represent a Dominion which had definitely refused to take a further part in the Exhibition. It may be said that at this stage no one really believes that next year the handsome New Zealand Pavilion will he occupied by some enterprising English firm, or used as an annexe to the f Australian Pavilion. The Duke of Devonshire presided, and about 120 guests were present. New Zealand was represented by Sir Thomas Mackenzie, Sir Arthur Myers, and Mr Roberts. The chairman proposed "Our Guests." He said there were certain points of obscurity in relation not only to the origin, but to the future, of the Exhibition; but he thought that at any rate in relation to its history the British Empire League had a clear claim to the gratitude of tho people of the Empire. As long ago as 1892 the idea of an Imperial Exhibition was not only mooted by, but received a considerable measure of support from, the British Empire League. The League had some Tight to self-congratulation wh'en it found in 1924 that the Exhibition was actually being held. He admitted that it was not until towards the end of 1922 that he found himself in a position of considerable responsibility in regard to the Exhibition. When he was appointed Secretary of State for the Colonies he thought it was impossible for him to discharge adequately the duties of chairman of the Executive Committee of the Exhibition also, and he wrote letters of resignation, but no one took any notice of them —(laughter) —with the result that to the end he was associated with the Exhibition. Geography That Would Stay. He Was perfectly convinced that a renewal of the Exhibition would be to the mutual advantage of all the parties concerned. The Prime Minister, in his speech at the Guildhall, had Taised hopes that that would be the policy, of the Government. Although he was not able to announco definitely that the Exhibition would be held again next year, he was as confident as he was of standing there that it would. (Cheers.) There were certain grave questions to be considered, but he had not the slightest doubt that a solution of them would be found. He therefore hoped that their guests would not regard that function as a farewell banquet, but Wather as an opportunity of meeting together at half-time, so to speak, and to consider proposals for making the Exhibition again thoroughly Imperial, and a still greater success. (Cheers.) The Exhibition had brought about in the minds of the younger generation an entirely new idea and conception of what Empire meant. Though one of the difficulties of the lato Exhibition was the number of 'children who visited it, he was sure that if the Exhibition were renewed next year children would be encouraged to come to it even in larger numbers. (Cheers.) He was told by a high authority that more geography had been taught in the months of the Exhibition than in the preceding hundred years. That was geography which was going to stay. (Cheers.) The Prophet and his Country. ' In replying on behalf of the Dominions, Mr Roberts said that those whom he had the honour to represent came from all parts of the Empire. Their countries might vary in many respects —in climate, in language—but there ' were two things jn which they were absolutely at one: their loyalty to the King and Empire—and their assurance of more sunshine than this country had the benefit of. He was sure he was voicing the opinion of his colleagues , when he said that they had had a somewhat strenuous time during the last few months. They had done their work willingly, and they were ready to do it again. They were all in the position of the prophet not without honour save in his own country. They had all received commendation from others, but condemnation from their own people. Next year, if there was a next year, they intended to form a Commissioners' Union. (Laughter.) During the past week or two they had, by lunching together, obtained an extraordinary amount of personal contact. It had been a very great pleasure for those from every part of the Empire to get into closer touch and discuss matters from their respective points of view. It had been one of the most interesting features of the Exhibition. "May I say that we all sincerely hope that the policy of wait-and-see will very shortly develop into seeing, because we do want to know what is going to happen. I hope that if the Exhibition continues next year the position will be somewhat similar to a certain football match played at Twickenham last Saturday—the first half was somewhat unsatisfactory, the second half was a positive delight. (Laughter.) I do not think it would be possible to have worse weather conditions than we have had this year, and I am sure that the second session of the British Empire Exhibition will bo a greater success than the first." A Turning Point. '*- . Dewan Bahadur T. Yijayaraghavacharya, the Exhibition Commissioner for India, said he had to confess to unrestrained pride in the Empire. There had been Empires in the past, but did they make it their boast that they were Empires of free nations t He could assure his fellow-Indians on behalf of England that no Englishman, of whatever political creed, had any desire to make India a subject country. It was time that the education which they had acquired should be put to good purpose. Wembley ought to mark a turn-ing-point, not only in the policy of the Mother Country, but in the domestic policy of each of the Dominions. It ought to be Empire first and India, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada afterwards. Wembley had made it possible for them to feel the unity of the Empire in a living way which they had not felt before. He believed in the future of the Empire. The qualities which had built it up were not dead, and the political wisdom of the British race was not exhausted. A wonderful thing had been done by bringing together the races of the Empire at • Wembley. ' ! * }£g Algernon, EspinalL, . responding

for the Colonies, Protectorates, and Mandated Territories, expressed *he hope that Mr Amery would give to the Colonies and Dominions a substantial measure of Imperial Preference. (Cheers.) When the question of Empire v. Bolshevism, was put before the electorates, he felt that the display which the Colonies had put up at Wembley had some effect in convincing the electorate as to which they should choose. It would be idle to pretend that they did not view with profound satisfaction the prospect before them i of a stable Government, continuity of policy, and the prospect of Imperial Preference. Hope for the Future. Sir Thomas Mackenzie proposed the health of the Colonial Secretary, but ' he paid a tribute to the Imperial outlook of the late Secretary, Mr J. H. Thomas. Sir Thomas went on to speak of what a Secretary of the Colonies had to know and to study, which gave him an opportunity of enumerating some of the resources of the great Dominions. He spoke of their trade with this country as compared with European trade with Britain. With the enterprise and assistance which the Mother Country could give, he said, they might look forward within the next hundred years to a development as great as that now enjoyed by the United States of America, which had not such a largo area as New Zealand and Australia put together. Sir Thomas Mackenzie went on to speak of Mr Amery's abilities. Whether it was the Army or the Navy he was dealing with, said Sir Thomas, he could administer them, equally well. He was a law-giver, an author, an alpine man, and, when occasion required it, a boxer into the bargain. "A man with his capacity," eaid Sir Thomas, "gives us a feeling of hope. More than at any other period in history our hopes are high, and If effect is only given to all that can be done in the way of transference of population and wealth and supplies, we shall realise what the Empire is. The Empire is that which should be most strenuously tended, because it is to the* Empire you have to look for your trade . prosperity." No Unreasonable Demand. Mr Amery, responding, said that, whatever view they might take of their domestic differences, all who were interested in Imperial affairs had recognised the broad Imperial statesmanship and the genuine and eager enthusiasm with which Mr Thomas threw himself into every good Imperial cause, and, not least, in forwarding the great work of the Exhibition whose half-time success they were celebrating that night. (Cheers.) It was a fortunate thing that during the acute controversy in their politics in recent times the party spirit should have remained outside the doors of the Colonial Office. Mr Thomas's tenure of that office was very happy in that respect, and ho (Mr Amery) only hoped that he might be as fortunate in that matter as Mr Thomas had been. The Exhibition had given to all who had been privileged to go there a wonderful picture of what the British Empire had already achieved. It had also left in their minds an even stronger feeling of how infinitely greater that achievement might be if they worked together with, a co-Operative policy and with a common' purpose to make the fullest use of those vast resources, of which the Exhibition gave some idea, and df all that brain,' power; energy, and inititive to which the Exhibition also testified. If they could combine their resources,' materia), and system in something of the samo vigour of purpose with which the United States had pooled their resources for the making of a great country, he believed that the Exhibition of 20 or 30 years hence would Bhow.i-somethuig far .beyond- anything that those "who had been, to Wembley during the last few months could dream to be possible.. It was on reading the lesson , of Wembley aright that the-whole future of this country and every portion of the Empire depended. They had to look upon that Exhibition not merely as a display of what had been done, but. as an indication to them of; what they might do and what it was their duty to do. From that point of view, if from no other, they felt—as the Prime Minister expressed it at the Guildhall the other day—that the Exhibition ought not to be allowed to come to an untimely end. (Cheers.) It had brought home the meaning and the possibilities of Empire to a considerable section of the population. They wanted the whole of the people to understand what it meant. To do that- they must have a reasonable measure of time, and that was why they certainly meant, as far as lay in theirpowcr, to see that the Exhibition was not only continued next year, but was continued even .more successfully than it had been in the months that had passed. (Cheers.) In doing so they did not believe that they were embarking upon any rash commitment or asking anything unreasonable of any of the other communities or Governments of the Empire whose close co-operation they sought, or of those private individuals or firms who had so patriotically gone so far to make it a success. (Cheers.) The Winning Half-Time. The vast capital put into the Exhibition could not have been expected to pay in a few months of inclement weather, continued Mr Amery. Next year the Exhibition would start with all those assets, and therefore with a far better opportunity of making good. The position of those who had guaranteed the Exhibition could not be prejudiced by its continuance, but, on the contrary, might be. appreciably improved. It was for those reasons, apart from the Imperial reasons which ho had mentioned, that the Government looked forward confidently to the renewed assistance of those who had carried the Exhibition so far, and that the Government, on their part, were prepared to do substantially more than they had done in the past and to cooperate more actively, in the way of easing in some mensure the burden mhirh others had borne, so that the next Exhibition would be held in the winning "half-time," and that those who took part in it, from whatever part of the Empire they might come, would look back upon it with pride and satisfaction. Ho had entered upon his great task at the Colonial Office with a consciousness of his own inadequacy in attempting to cope with it. Ho had been a good deal about the Empire, and had learnt something of its problems, but as he looked back over the past his memory was always not of political problems studied or of countries visited, but of men nnd women whom he had met and talked with: and it was to those good friends that he looked, in what might be the difficult years before him, for understand-j ing, sympathy, and comprehension. (Cheers.)