Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1923. "INTENSELY PRACTICAL"

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 81, 3 October 1923, Page 4

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1923. "INTENSELY PRACTICAL"

The speech delivered by Mr. Baldwin in opening the Imperial Conference has been described by Mr. Massey as "devoid of rhetoric, but intensely practical." The description is apt. Mr. Baldwin spoke in plain language, and made a straightforward statement of the problems which the Conference would be asked to consider. There were no sensational revelations in the statement, nor extravagant predictions.- This was as it should be at the opening of a Conference which is expected to get to grips at once with its work, and to waste no time in empty oratory. From Mr. Baldwin's survey it is seen that there is much work to be done; and great issues depend upon the way in which it is handled. The 1 members of the Conference 'have been allowed full freedom in approaching their task, for Mr. Baldwin has simply stated the problems, and has abstained from dictating, or even suggesting specific courses of action. He has placed before his Empire colleagues no set policy, but an ideal to which all may subscribe as the unwritten charter oi the British Commonwealth of Nations. "The British Empire," he has said, "cannot live for itself alone/ The strength of this Commonwealth of Nations will grow so far as its memoers unite to bear the burdens of those weaker and less fortunate than, themselves.

The Imperial Conference is meeting at a time when this ideal is more and more necessary for the welfare of mankind. It is' an ideal which may be applied within the Empire—in' relieving the distress of the less fortunate—and beyond the (Empire's borders, in setting an example of worthy devotion to the cause of peace. Mr. Baldwin spoke optimistically of the work done by the League of Nations Assembly; but his optimism is probably traceable to the fact that he was never one who expected the League to advance without sustaining some shocks. There is little doubt, however, that the conduct of the League in *he Italo-Greek crisis has disheartened some of its friends, and, though they may agree with Mr. Baldwin that the League proceedings revealed a growing international moral sense, they yet feel that tihe moral sense must be further quickened if it is to become an effective, force in international politics. For that quickening they must look to the individual nations, and most of all to the British Empire. In the Empire there are different nations with different interests; but one ideal. The common ideal has enabled them hitherto to reconcile their divergent views. They have learned to work with each other, and they may teach other nations the secret. If they do so, it will be true, as Mr. Baldwin has said, that the Empire is the natural and spontaneous, product, not only of its own necessities but those of mankind.