IDEAS EXPANDED

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 127, 25 November 1929, Page 9

IDEAS EXPANDED

CONSULTING DOMINIONS

FREE HAND ELSEWHERE

_ LONDON, 23rd November. Attention is attracted to a passage in Mr. Stanley Baldwin's speech in which he said that in framing an Empire policy to which the Conservative leaders must devote themselves it was essential they should take the youth of the party into their councils.

"A generation may bo needed to effect the unity of which we draw the burden," said Mr. Baldwin. "Tho fight may well lie on the shoulders of the young."

The "Daily Telegraph's" Parliamentary corespondent learns that the inquiry indicated by Mr. Baldwin will be thorough and systematic. It is hoped it will be possible to frame a policy in detail which will avoid the stale theories of twenty years ago and take full account of modern conditions.

The correspondent learns that Mr. Baldwin and his colleagues express the opinion that Empire development must inevitably be linked up with the question of employment here. It is pointed out that matters connected with the expansion of Empire trade must be the outcomo of consultation so far as the Dominions are concerned, but Britain has a free hand in the colonies and protectorates which might be organised to produce tho raw materials required without going outside the Empire to the extent necessary to-day. The fact that the Empire is now self-spporting is regarded in Conservative quarters as having revolutionised the outlook. It is considered the' timo is ripe for a thorough re-examination of all the possibilities of Empire trade. Mr. Baldwin, at present merely forshadowed the production of a complete policy in due course.

Conservative circles express the hope that the question will now lie keut in the forefront of all platforms.