OFFICIALLY OPENED

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 114, 7 February 1935, Page 9

OFFICIALLY OPENED

Empire Press Conference Cape Town, February 5. The Governor-General of South Africa, the Earl of Clarendon, in opening the Empire Press ♦Conference, welcomed the delegates to what he described as the land of gold, both above and below the ground. They had. assembled in South Africa at a most characteristic moment of her history. Recalling Lord Rosebery’s remarks at the opening of -the first conference in 1909, when he described the copferenee as of greater importance than the gatherings of Prime Ministers and Ministers, he said that Lord Rosebery’s remarks about “transient statesmen and the permanent Press” were as true to-day as in 1909. South Africa’s problems were little known outside, but a solution wopld have an important reaction far beyond African shores. He expressed a desire to see still greater improvement in the volume and selection of Empire news and informative articles. He was quite sure that the'delegates would return to their own countries strengthened in the desire to preserve the unity of the great Commonwealth of Nations. The delegates last night were entertained by the famous Cape Town Municipal Orchestra, the director of which, Mr. Pickerill, had composed a special overture in their honour. GENERAL SMUTS BETTER / Cape Town, February 5. General Smuts, who is suffering from gastric influenza, accentuated by a swim, js now approaching normal. ■ He expects to address the Empire Press Conference on international affairs on Saturday.