IMPERIAL UNITY
QUESTION ,OF PARTIES
LABOUR DENIES HOSTILITY
(From "The Post's" Representative ) . LONDON, 10th April. On the vote for the Dominions in the House of Commons yesterday Mr. J. H. Thomas seized the opportunity of denying that the Labour Party was hostile to Imperial unity or uninterested' in the Imperial development. ' -There was- real . danger of friction arising with the Dominions, he said, over the holding of Imperial Conferences when it was found that resolutions which were passed counted for nothing because of a change of Government..: The problem was surely not in- '■ capable of' solution: :Hb had- suggest- '■ ed\that the-real solution was that the Imperial. .Conference, instead, of being a conference of .Governments, should be a conference of Parliaments, in which representatives of nil parties would be present. He thought that the fact, of meeting in that way would focus the minds of people on subjects common to all. That would be far better than passing resolutions and finding it impossible, to give effect to them. He thought it was also unwise to limit the place of meeting for the Imperial Conferences to this country. He would give- the Dominions the benefit of having conferences held in their countries.
. Touching on migration, Mr. Thomas asserted that the Labour Party policy on this subject had been misrepresented. During Labour's ten months of office, he said, they set up the existing Australian scheme; they sanetioifld an expenditure of £30,000,000, of which only £4,000,000 had been spent in four years: they had fixed up the Canadian family scheme, and arranged a scheme with the Canadian National Railways. "In these circumstances," said Mr. Thomas, "I ask what ground, is there _ for the suggestion that the Empire is in danger from, the return of the Labour Party to power?" (LabSoe. cheers.)
Mr. Amery. properly refused to be* drawn into a comparison of the Imperial merits of British parties. He pointed put that the presence of Oppositions at Imperial Conferences had not proved acceptable to Dominion Governments, but that Oppositions were collaborating on bodies such as the Overseas Settlement Committee and the Empire Marketing Board. He agreed with Mr. Thomas that the forging of machinery which could reconcile Dominion autonomy in policy with practical unity of policy was extremely important. Much progress had been made recently by increasing the speed and personal character of consultations. ■ Commutation of the premiums on social services was very difficult, but he thought it well worth while to inquire whether, where actuarial value was not ascertainable, some payment might be made for moral value as part of the help given in settlement. Aa for settlement generally, he pointed out that the Empire Settlement Act had at least been the means of trying all sorts of schemes and proving which were the best. ' Nunerically, the flow might be small,, but promising.-, channels had been dug, and the next Government would have a mass of experience to review.
The Empire Marketing Board had been a great success. . It had, without any doubt, contributed by its publicity and lectures to the increase since 1914 of 11 per cent, in the Dominion share of British purchases. Its research work, carried out at the Rowett Institute and other centres, was giving immense help to primary producers, and also to distributors, all over the Empire. Its economic work on such things as grading of produce would lessen the middleman's risk, permit lower charges, and secure more for the producer. Economic development would permit better distribution of population, as the Balfour Committee .had pointed out Finally, though he admitted tH at there was much agreement on Empire policy, he was a Ititle nervous of Socialist "rogue elephants." Mr. Snowden, for example, in a recent article had spoken of "the Empire bleeding Britain." Such attacks upon .Dominitms whose tariffs gave British goods a S per cent, preference could not go unchallenged.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 129, 5 June 1929, Page 11
Word Count
643IMPERIAL UNITY Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 129, 5 June 1929, Page 11
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