VACANT SPACES

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 88, 13 April 1935, Page 15

VACANT SPACES

THE EMPIRE PROBLEM

NEED FOR UNDERSTANDING

MUST ACT TOGETHER

(From "The Post's' Representative.)

LONDON, March 16.

Three public" men who have recently visited Australia and New Zealand gave their views on Imperial questions at a meeting of the Royal Empire Society. These were Sir Archibald Weigall (chairman of the council of the society), Mr. Malcolm MacDon.ald, and Major General Sir Fabian Ware. ■ ,

Their speeches gave evidence of the usefulness and necessity of these visits by public men of Great Britain, if the people of this country and the people of the Dominions are to have a common outlook and a sympathetic understanding .the one of another. • "External appearances in the' Capital cities,", said Sir Archibald Weigall, "give evidence !of great, prosperity; . ■ nevertheless primary producers are i having a very hard time. The city is always six months behind the country, and the former is now living on the proceeds of a good wool crop of the year before. Political expediency is far too:great a governing factor in the settlement of national and interImperial questions. The eternal struggle between urban and rural to reconcile interests in political affairs is still going on. The social services in the cities present such attractions" to youth that they prefer to remain idle in tt» citiet rather than take up essential work In the country. "I am convinced that the abolishment of the Empire Marketing Board is a glorious example of splendid stupidity, for which Australia can< in no way be held responsible. All the questions repercusaive on the revival of British agriculture are agitating the minds of Australians, but I am convinced that they are prepared to take , the long view if thrf whole question of agricultural production all over ttie Empire is not tackled piecesneal, but dealt with as a whole after a complete survey of all units of production has been made. Just as Australia has a firm White Australia Policy, so must it be recognised that England has a White English Policy for English Agriculture:" . ;

- A BEAUTIFUL WORLD. Sir Fabian Ware retold a story 'which is worth recording. "I shall never forget," he said, 'my first sight of Australia and my first contact with her shores at Fremantle. I went to Perth; it was springtime and the wild flowers were' ' beginning to spread a coloured carpet over the land. On my return to the ship 1 compared notes with the Archbishop of Liver-; pool,',who had also been ashore.. We were both carried away by what we! had seen. 'The world is a beautiful; place, isn't it?" I said. 'Yes, he replied; •do you know the story of the old ■ monk who. was approaching his end and who, in a dream, saw-God. God said to him, -What do you think of my world?' and the monk replied, Oh, Lord, I have been so busy with my duties in Thy service that 1 have not had time to look at it, to which God replied, 'Well, you had better hurry up and see it before you meet Me. I 'am trying to meet that same challenge and; to get at least a general view of : the British Empire before I die. ■'- There was a virility about Australia; and" New Zealand, said Sir Fabian, which was like a breath of fresh air in the turgid atmosphere of these times. That most fatal legacy of the war, a cynicism which had wizened the souls of, a whole generation of young people in this country, had not so affected them. Australia and. New Zealand he found pre-eminently lands of hope— and British to the core. Who but BriHish could have accomplished what they had? ■■■-..- , MACHINERY OF DISTRIBUTION. "The first fact that struck me,".continued' Sir Fabian, "was that Australia and New Zealand have the best se- . lected populations that the world has yet known. Nowhere has that selection been carried out so strictly and unflinchingly for many years past. L .found people in Australia and New Zealand alive to the fact that in their ■ country, as in Canada and South Africa, there are still vacant spaces ; capable of producing' the means of 'support for a much larger population, than they at present hold. But what, they ask themselves, is the good of filling these up when, in the occupied areas of surpassing friu'tfulness, man under the primal curse is raising supplies that should assure cheap food and clothing to populations short pf ' the means of existence in other parts. 'of the world, but they cannot get more than a part of these supplies to them. The machinery of distribution which our economic system has evolved has broken down. In Australia I came across an instance of wheat being des--1 troyed for which there was no accessible market. But they are anxious, for • they realise that one thing is certain. If the vast and complicated system of civilisation, which we have painfully built up, fails to take the food to the : people-in short, if the problem of distribution is not solved-then, true to his elementary instincts, man will go ;to the food. ! THE QUESTION. OF MOMENT. "No thoughtful person can visit Australia and New Zealand without returning agitated by this problem which lies now, today, at the root of our future and the freedom of this Commonwealth »nd each nation in it. It is the question of the moment. The time has gone by «or the economists to offer theoretical explanations of the inevitability of what has happened. Nor is the admirable work being done in devising systems of small infiltrations any solution: what is the ultimate use of that when the tide is running against us? We have got to get down to the problem: and to have a policy as definite in its objective as that of Nazism and Fascism. No part of the Empire can solve ,it alone for the other. The conditions iSn each are different and—here ia our very strength—each brings a different type of mind, different experience, new ' traditions, and varying genius to bear on it. .To act independently in this ' crisis would be fatal; if we are to survive not only must each part know in vital matters what the other is doing but what the other proposes to do ;or they will be at cross purposes. In such co-operation alone can safety lie and was there ever before such' a possible combination of will and power? 'It is not only co-operatjon between the Mother Country and the Dominions that is essential, but also between Do- , minion and Dominion, and the present development of an intense nationality in the Dominions makes that daily, more difficult." SECONDARY INDUSTRIES. Mr. Mac Donald said that one of the ' Impressions he had brought away with him was that there was far too little • contact and understanding between Australia and Britain. They did not appreciate each other's problems as they should. The way in which Aus- " tralian and United Kingdom interests

could be reconciled must be worked out. In England it must be recognised that it was essential that there should be a development of economic secondary industries in Australia. It was in Britain's interest to see Australia supporting a larger population, and if Australia was ever really to become a fully populated country it- was going to b^ by the employment of more and more people in her secondary industries. He believed .Britain would succeed in obtaining a 'proper solution of her problems with the Dominions if their claim to development was recognised and appreciated. Any policy which checked development would be fatal. He had come back more firmly convinced than ever that the power and authority o£ the British peoples in the future depended on the gradual peopling of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.'