EMPIRE PRODUCTION

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 147, 25 June 1927, Page 20

EMPIRE PRODUCTION

I ."WHAT ADVERTISING CAN Da

England less than a hundred years •go was nioro scattered than tho British Empire is to-day. Swift steamships, tailways, and motor roads have brought, even the most distant parts of tho Empire within easy roach of the mother country than the north of England used to be of tho south. But while the interchange of manufactured goods and raw commodities has-been vastly quickened by this fact, the interchange of ideas has relatively, speaking lagged tiahind. Ido not mean that peoplo in Sydney, for instance, are altogether out of touch with their fellow citizens in Southampton or that Canada means npthing to Kent, says the Hon. W. Q, Ai Ormsby-Gore, M.P., in the "Daily Mail." 7 Happily citizens of the Empire ali over the world are growing more and more .conscious of their common ways of thought and interests. But th'ef a is considerable leeway to be made up" in this field. One still finds.surprising ignorance of the simplest facts about the Empire expressed by men generally very well informed. „ ,In my view one of the" gi^atest needs oft the day is a better understanding of th£se simple facts by British', citizens b.% home and overseas. . Nothing controversial is involved* No old, halfhealed political wounds.need be opened. It;>is purely a question of a'better arid fuller .knowledge of facts. ■• jWo in this country are getting nuire' -*?!* more o£ our-mpprted foodstuffs and of\ the raw materials for our factories from the Empire overseas. Our fellow citizens outside the: United Kingdom are making stronger and stronger demands ,up>n-our manufacturers for the -- prodijleta, of car, industrial districts. All th|jßse;Scatterea areas pf the world under tnj> British flag servo.each-other's needs and share a common .'desire for peace *nd for the expansion of trade. . ■ • '^ere" 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 un-' productive areas of tropical Africa have been opened up in the last generation and converted into, huge producing areas capable of absorbing great quan-' iities. of our exports; ; v "•It is this process,.'going on rapidly •very year, that I should like to ace appreciated by all British citizens. "We cannot, iinfurtunately, all travel, but there are other means of making, the Empire | 'come alive" for those of us whom circumstances compel to stay at-home, and among these means the forthcoming Advertising Exhibition and Convention at Olympia in July ranks high. I welcome the.opportunitjjr that it offers of bringing to "the attention- of people in this country the 'wonderful variety of resources included Withia their Empire. '".' "