EMPIRE SERVICE LEAGUE.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20334, 5 September 1931, Page 15

EMPIRE SERVICE LEAGUE.

CONFERENCE IN CANADA.

LORD JELLICOE'S APPEAL. (UNITED PSESS ASSOCIATION —BT ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH—COPYRIGHT.) TORONTO, September 3. Appealing for the same unity in peace .time as that which gave the Empire success during tho Great War, Lord Jellicoe to-day sounded the keynote for the opening of the British Empire Service League Conference. Delegates were in attendance from eighteen parts of the British Empire. The conference was officially opened by Colonel the Hon. Murray Maclaren, Minister for Pensions, who represented the Prime Ministei*. In his address as Grand President, Lord Jellicoe said: Tho British Empire Service League and tho constituent organisations within the League are non-political, but in every part of the Empire each organisation has stood firmly against any interference, by any Government, with the rights of those who did their duty. Unemployment is the greatest problem facing all member organisations of the British Empire Service League. In our great organisation there are more than 60,000 branches, comprising a very large number of men throughout the Empire who, with their families, can do much to promote Empire trade by giving preference to Empire products.

Lord Jellicoe read a message from the Prince of Wales_ congratulating the League on its achievements and expressing his confidence that e?servicemen who have settled in the Dominions would stick it out* as they had done in the Great Wax*, despite the most difficult conditions. Major J. S. Roper, president of the Canadian Legion, was elected chairman of the conference. Lord Jellicoe was again unanimously elected Grand President. The following resolution was passed on the motion of Mr L. A. Robb (Australia); This conference urges the British Government to take action to obviate the unrestricted importation of Russian food «tuffs nnd _ raw materials into the Kingdom in the interest of the Dominions, and the progress, prosperity, stability, and security of the Empire. The resolution originally referred to wheat, hut on the sutrorestion of Sir "Vederick Maurice, representing the British Legion, the words "food stuffs and raw materinl" were substituted. ARMAMENT LIMITATION. CONSIDERATION • POSTPONED. (Received September 4th, 7,10 p.m.) TORONTO, September 3. The British Empire Service League's conference postponed further consideration of a resolution endorsing the limitation of armaments after Sir Frederick Maurice and Colonel J. A. Mullen , (Australia) had expressed the view that Great Britain's armaments were "cut to the bone'' and that other nations were not following her example. Discussion was aroused by a motion introduced by the delegation from Great Britain that the Dominions either be admitted into local ex-servicemen's organisations or encouraged to form organisations of their own. It was pointed out that in Great Britain the Government and constituent organisations accepted aU ex-scrvicemen upon an equal basis, . In Australia, said Mr A. H. Francks, representative of the British Legipn, there has been discrimination against Imperial ex-servicemen in employment. A number of serious cases have been brought to the attention of th? British Legion. „ , » , On the motion of Sir Frederick Maurice the matter was referred to a sub-committee for investigation.