WHAT ADVERTISING CAN DO.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3384, 25 July 1927, Page 2

WHAT ADVERTISING CAN DO.

England leas than a hundred years ago was more scattered than the British Empire is to-day. Swift steamships, railways, and motor roads have bronsht even the most distant pajrts of the Empire within easy reach off the mother country than the north of England used to be of the south. But while the interchange of_ manufactured goods and raw commodities has* been vastly quickened by tins fact, the interchange of ideas has relatively speaking lagged behind. I do not mean that people in Sydney, for instance, are altogether out of touch with their fellow citizens in Southampton or that Canada means nothing to Kent, says the Hon. W. G. A. Ormshy-Gore. M.P., in the Daily Mail. Happily citizens of the Empire all over the world are growing more and more conscious of their common ways of thought and interests. But there is considerable leeway to ho made up in this end. One still finds surprising ignorance of tho simplest facts about the Empire expressed by men generally very well informed* In my view one of the greatest needs of the day is a better understanding of these simple facts by British citizens at home and overseas. Nothing controversial is involved. No old, halfhealed political wounds need he opened. It is purely a question of a better and fuller knowledge of facts. We in this country are getting more and more of our imported foodstuff's and of the raw materials for our factories from the Empire overseas. Our fellow citizens outside the United Kingdom . are making stronger ami stronger demands upon our manufacturers for the products of our industrial districts. All these scattered areas of the world under the British flag serve each other’s needs and share a common desire for peace and for the expansion of trade. There is unlimited scope for such expansion. nowhere more markedly than in the tropical Colonies, of which I may claim to speak with some special knowledge. The dark and hitherto unproductive areas of tropica) Africa have been opened up in the last generation and converted into huge producing areas capable of absorbing groat quantities of our exports. it, is this process, going on rapidly every year, that I should like to see appreciated by all British citizens. We y cannot, unfortunately, all travel, hut: there are other means of making the Empire “come alive” for those of us whom circumstances compel to May at heme, and among these means the ' forthcoming Advertising Exhibition and Convention at Olympia in July ranks high. .1 welcome the opportunity that it offers of bringing to the attention of people in this country the wonderful variety of resources included within their Empire.