EMPIRE PROBLEMS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 37, 12 February 1926, Page 4

EMPIRE PROBLEMS

NOTABLE SURVEY

BY SIR JOHN HIGGINS

REMEDIES SUGGESTED.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, sth February. A notablo survey of the British Empire's present-day problems has been made by Sir John Higgins, chairman of Bawra, who has just returned, after a visit to Britain, where ho enjoyed a busman's holiday, as the cables havo from time to time intimated. That Sir John Higgins has made a thoughtful study of tho Empire's problems is shown in the survey, which was printed in the Melbourne "Argus," together with a foreword by iord,'lnvorf or^h, who says that tho article "portrays a moat searching effort towards a feasible basis to solve our industrial and economic problems, and thereby rehabilitate our financial status and assert our

supremacy in the world." '

It i^ight be unjust to Sir John Higgins to attempt to paraphrase his surVey, but. at least its salient features can be here given. He holds the opinion that the Empire's problems are, individually, serious and difficult of solution; collectively, they are a grava menace to the safety and welfare of the British nation." He asks the following questions: (1) Is the basis of approaching and the mode of dealing with these individual troubles sound? (2) Is the solution to bo found within tuo British'lsles? (3) Is the problem one which Great Britain alone can solve t Answering these, Sir John Higgins says: "These important and farreaching questions are matters for the consideration of the British Empire as a whole, and the solution will_ be found only by and through the co-operation and co-ordination of all parts of tho Empire. Having arrived at such , conclusions, the question then resolved itself into: (1) Ah intimate study and close analysis of Empire matters; (2) a stocktaking and valuation of the assets and potentialities of the Empire from various viewpoints, (a) primary products or raw materials, (b) manufactured goods or fabricated materials, (c) the ways and means of developing (a) and (b); (3) the organisation necessary for the administration of Empire policy." i ' IMPERIAL CONFERENCE METHODS. Sir John Higgins criticises the methods of Imperial Conferences in the past, maintaining that the various delegates were present to gain benefits or advantages for their particular Dominion or colony. The primary duty of an Imperial Conference, be holds, is to deal with the British Empire as a whole,' and to . make a complete analysis of the area, population, location, climates,. primary products, and secondary products, manufactures, land and water transport, markets, and finance. Having analysed the. whole and become acquainted with its .- composition, he urges, there should then be allocated to each of the Dominions those constituents or primary products, the present production and future delevopment of which the individual Dominion is specially and naturally adapted ' for geographically, climatically, and ethnologically.

Sir John Higgins makes an intensive anaNsis of the area, location, and population,of, the Empire from various points of view. He estimates the present yearly value of exports from the Dominions of the Empire at £547,876,----000, of which about) 50 per cent, are foodstuffs. He- concludes that "from whatever standpoint the present condition of the. British Empire is. viewed, it cannot be questioned .that the"outstanding, necessity is the development of the overseas Dominions." The progress in this direction, he believes, is so slow that it will not cure ;the ills from which the Empire is suffering. It is vital that oversea development should be greatly accelerated immediately. The course, for Britain to follow is, firstly, to encourage increased production of raw materials in oversea Dominions; and, secondly, to ensure their utilisation and manufacture in industrial Britain. The one should be .complementary to the other. Oversea Empire development, says Sir John, in the practical method, of consolidating all parts of the Empire as a means of advancing civilisation throughout the world. To secure this development he urges permanent settlement of the land, with organisations for the principal primary industries controlled by the producers or their appointees directly interested in the particular industry. These organisations would be co-operative in character, to yield a fair return to the. producer, eliminating as far as practical the speculative element. production would lower, cost, of living and ensure regular supplies, resulting in full-time employment and higher efficiency in the secondary industries. He believes, in short, that rapid oversea '• development will "efface materially industrial and comij^ial troubles and depressions,, and carrying out the administration of 'The British Empire Trust' in a proper and faithful manner." ■ ■