CONFERENCE OPENS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 113, 6 February 1935, Page 9

CONFERENCE OPENS

Empire Press Delegates At Cape Town NEW ZEALAND GREETINGS Cape Town, February 4. With the arrival to-day of the British and Canadian delegates the personnel of the Imperial Press Conference is complete and the first session was held this afternoon, when Major Astor was elected chairman and Mr. T. W. Mackenzie, Bloemfontein, deputy chairman.

One British delegate, Mr. F. O. Coleman. editor and proprietor of “Modern Transport” and other publications, was taken seriously ill on the voyage and was carried ashore on a stretcher. During the proceedings of the conference, which opened in a heat wave, a message of greeting was read from the New Zealand section of the Empire Press Union.

The most important item of the technical agenda is Imperial communications for Press purposes, including cable and wireless charges.

Other subjects for discussion at Cape Town, and later Johannesburg, include the Press and censorship, libel laws, Empire news services, radio broadcasting, subsidised competition, and copyright. Keen regret is felt by all delegates at the illness of General Smuts, not only on personal grounds, but because it was arranged that he should address the delegates on the vitally important subject of native policy in Africa, also on world affairs. General Smuts attended the Union Assembly on Friday, but it was evident that he was unwell. Among the British delegates is Mr. Lionel Curtis, founder of the “Round Table” and one of the famous group of young men known as “Milner’s Kindergarten,” whom Lord Milner appointed to administer affairs after the Boer War. GENERAL SMUTS ILL Cape Town, February 4. General Smuts has been taken suddenly ill. The illness is not yet diagnosed, but is probably a. chill from bathing, including a malarial attack.