LATE NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 71, 21 September 1933, Page 12

LATE NEWS

KNOWLEDGE OF EMPIRE

EXCHANGE OF.NEWS

DISCUSSED AT TORONTO

United Tress Association—By Electric Tele.

graph—Copyright. (Received September 21, 2 p.m.)

TORONTO,, September 20.

National Press Associations in each of the Dominions, freely exchanging news of the Empire, were held up as a prospect to hope for in the committee of the Commonwealth Relations Conference. Delegates remarked that in each Dominion at present there'was a paucity of news about the others. It was stated that at the last Imperial Press Conference the Canadians' said that if each of tlfl Dominions had an organisation similar in aims and operation to the Canadian Press Association the problem would be solved. The idea of a co-operative British Press as advanced three years ago was then approved in principle and. a committee appointed to consult the various Dominions as to its practicability with a view to reporting at the next conference in South Africa in 1935. It was suggested that if South Africa, Australia, and India set up co-operative associations, as- in Canada and New Zealand, the road would bo prepared for the establishment in London of a clearing hduse for Empire news in which the Press of the United Kingdom would be invited to participate.

A jocular definition of the Statute of Westminster came from Professor A. H. Chartoris (Australia), who said: "It is Canada's marriage certificate which makes her an honest woman in the eyes of the United States." Speaking in a more serious vein, the professor remarked that Canada had always led the way. in the matter of Dominion status. The question was not a prominent one in Australia.

Uniformity in shipping legislation for Empire countries and the collation of inclusive statistics as between the Dominions was advised by the conference. Shipping statutes would apply only to international and inter-coastal aspects of mercantile trade, each Dominion retaining control over its purely domestic shipping questions, but so far Canada is the only Dominion prepared to put such a measure into force. The committee recommended that a committee from various parts of the British Commonwealth bo set up to draft a statute acceptable to all.