EMPIRE SENTIMENT

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 272, 12 August 1932, Page 10

EMPIRE SENTIMENT

An Inspiration To-day NATIONALISM’S RISKS A Wide Vision Essential Dominion Special Service. fl Christchurch, August 11. Empire must no longer be a mere sentiment, but. an inspiration, according to his Excellency the GovernorGeneral, who gave an address to-day at a luncheon o, the Royal Empire Society. “Let us,” said his Excellency, “while striving. to extend Empire trade, be careful to avoid exclusive economic nationalism. Ottawa may tell its tale, but so must Lausanne and Geneva. If one member of the fraternity of nations suffers, all the members are bound to suffer with it. If, for instance, Germany or the Danubian .States are threatened with bankruptcy, the progress and prosperity of the British Empire will lie arrested for at least a quarter of a century. “Tile crying need of the world to-day would appear to be a co-ordination of currency policy, first within the Empire, and afterwards in the world. Let us in no speculative spirit but by combined constructive effort, with full play for individual enterprise rather than that of grandmotherly departmentalism. develop fully the land of our country and such ancillary industries as are capable of maintaining their economic vitality without becoming a burden upon the community, winning from both sources the largest possible amount of wealth. “But let us ever bear in mind,” said his Excellency, “that if we mean to be sellers of our country’s output to customers overseas we must also be buyers of their products, whether those countries be situate within the British Empire or, like China, Japan, or Argentina, are outside its borders. Empire must no longe, be a mere sentiment, worthy though such' sentiment may be. It must be an inspiration, a motive force generating constructive energy, not only in nations but' in every man, woman and child belonging to them. “Never was there more need than there is to-day for wide vision, sound judgment, and a burning consciousness that the pursuit of national welfare, whatevr sacrifices it entails, is the surest road to individual prosperity,” his Excellency said. “There is no room to-day for insularity either individual or collective. All must pull their full weight in the national boat if she Is to cross the present troubled waters to the haven of prosperity, which is even now visible upon the horizon. There is little room for myopic self-centred idlers who sit in the national boat, but, instead of helping it along, criticise the oarsmen, and still less for those, if there be any, who try to sow dissension among would-be patriots f.or their own selfish ends.”