MR AMERY’S TOUR

Evening Star, Issue 19795, 20 February 1928, Page 4

MR AMERY’S TOUR

WELCOME BACK GATHERING AMAZING PROGRESS OF DOMINIONS VALUE OF PREFERENCE STRESSED. LONDON, February 17. A representative gathering of British, dominion- and colonial administrators, financiers, and industrialists attended the Empire producers’ organisation luncheon to welcome Mr L. S. Amery (Seo rotary of State for the Dominions) back to England. Amongst those present were Lords Clendyne, Clarendon, and Rodney, Mr W. C. Bridgeman (First Lord of the Admiralty), Mr W. G. A. Ormsby-Gore (Under-secretary of Slate for Colonial Affaire), Mr A. M. Samuel (Financial Secretary to the Treasury), and Mr J. H. Thomas (ox-Cahiuct Minister). Mr J. G. Coates (Prime Minister of New Zealand, forwarded a cablegram offering bis congratulations. He stated that ho Hoped the tour would be productive of real value in promoting Imperial unity and co-operation. Mr B. J. Morgan, chairman of the organisation, said that the Empire producers regarded Mr Amery as the greatest advocate of Imperial preference in a Government to which they were indebted for preferences relating to sugar, tobacco, wine, and dried fruits. These had vastly stimulated Empire production. Such expansion was merely a hint of the developments likely to follow a full-blooded policy. Mr Amery, in responding to the toast of his health, said that he returned with a ten-fold greater optimism and a feeling that a new spirit was stirring the Empire to a sens© of a common destiny and responsibility and an idealism that would enable the Empire to tri-. nmph over all difficulties and achieve world-wide combination with absolute freedom and effective unity. He paid a tribute to the amazing progress of the dominions in primary and secondary production and also in research, instancing New Zealand’s aim to create the world’s leading dairy research in memory of the late Mr Massey. The British Government is co-operat-ing, through the Empire Marketing Board, in a large scale of research, which is vital to the efficiency of Empire production. “If,” ho said, “we embark on a new policy of Empire cooperation, it is essential to stimulate efficiency in every part of the Empire. British manufacturers cannot expect preferences unless they keep efficiency to the forefront in order to conquer the Empire markets. It would be disastrous to British trade if Australia and New Zealand discontinued preferences. The Empire needs creative and economic development. By co-ordinating the immense human material and resources and organising the purchasing power every part could thus achieve prosperity and social well-being, such as the world has not known.”

Sir Hugh Denison, in toasting Mr Morgan, said that he had studied American methods of business, mass production, salesmanship, and organisation, and ho had heard big industrialists explain how they proposed to capture the markets of the world. It was especially interesting to hear them because the majority of the successful were of British stock. They admitted that the only markets still open were inside the British Empire. The oniy remedy against invasion was Imperial preference.