VACANT SPACES

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 April 1935, Page 10

VACANT SPACES

THE. EMPIRE PROBLEM 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 oi' the society), Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, .and Major General Sir Fabian Ware. Their speeches gave evidence of the usefulness ,aud 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 having a very hard time. The city is always six months bphind the country, and the former is now living on the proceeds of a good wool crop of tire year before. Political expediency is far too gerat a governing factor in the settlement of national and interImperial questions. The eternal struggle between urban and rural to re-cqncil-3 interests in political affairs is still going on. The social services in tho cities present such attractions to youth that they prefer to remain idle in the cities rather than take up essential work in the country. “1 am convinced that the abolishment of tho Empire Marketing Board is a glorious example of splendid stupidity, for which Australia can in no way bo held . responsible. All the

questions repercussive 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 the whole question of agriculture production all over the Empire is not tackled piecemeal, but dealt with as a whole after i. complete survey of all units of production has been made. Just as Australia has a firm White Australia Policy, so must it He recognised that England has a White English Policy for English. Agriculture.” I Sir Fabian Ware refold a story (which is worth recording. “I shall never tqrget,” he said, “my first sight of Australia and my first contact with her shores at Fremantle. I went, to Perth; it was springtime aud the wild flowers were beginning to spread a coloured carpet over the kind. On uiy return to the ship I compared notes with tha Archbishop of Liverpool, who hud also been ashore. 'We wore both carried away by what wo had seen. “The world is a beautiful place, isn’t it?’ I said. ‘Yes,’ he replied; ‘do you know the story of the eld monk who was approaching his end and who, in a dream, saw God, God eaid 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 net had time to look at it,’ to which C'd replied, ‘Well, you had better,: hurry up and see it before you meet ( Me.’ I am trying to meet that same i challenge and to get at least a general i view of the British Empire before I

j There was a virility about Australia and New Zealand, said Sir Fabian, which was like a. breath of fresh air in tiie turgid atmosphere at these times. That most fatal legacy of the war, a cynicism which had wizon-

ed tho souls of a whole generation of young people in this country, had not so affected them. Australia and New Zealand he found pre-eminently lauds of hope —and British to the core. Who but British could have accomplished what they had? MACHINERY OF DISTRIBUTION “Tme first fact that struck me,” continued Sir Fabian, “was that Australia and New Zealand have the best selected populations that the world has yet known. Nowhere has that selection been carried out so strictly and unflinchingly for many years past. I 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 fruitfulness, man under the primal curse is raising supplies that should assure cheap food and clothing to populations short of tho 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 camo across an instance of wheat being destroyed for which there was , no accessible market. But they are i anxious, for they realise that one ' thing is certain. If the vast and complicated system of civilisation, which wo 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.

11 ‘No thoughtful ' can visit g Australia and New Zealand without m returning agitated by this problem o which lies now, to-day, at the root of s- our future and the freedom of this 11 Commonwealth and each nation in it. 1- It is the question of the moment. The ir- time has gone by for the economists j- to offer theoretical explanations of 5- the inevitability of what has happena ed. Nor is it the admirable work t being done in devising systems of y small infiltrations any solution: what is the ultimate use of that when the y tide is running against us? We have got to get down to the problem and to y have a policy as definite in its object tive as that of Nazism and Fascism. >. No part of the Empire can solve it j alone for the other. The conditions j in each are different and —here is j our very strength—each brings a dif- - Cerent typo of mind, different experif encc, new traditions, and varying geu- . lus to bear on it. To act indopendentt ly in this crisis would be fatal; if we • are to survive not only must each - part know in vital matters what the j other proposes to do or they will be > at cross purposes. lu such co-opera- , tion alone can safety lie —and was : there ever before such a possible! , combination of will and power? It. is I not only co-operation between the . Mother Country and the Domini-.us . th’at is essential, but also between Do- I ■ minion and Dominion, and the present , ■ development of an intense nationality ( sin the Dominions makes that daily ] Imore difficult.” ( I SECONDARY INDUSTRIES Mr. MacDonald said that one of tjie ] impressions ho had brought away with him was that there was far too little £ contact and understanding between f Australia and Britain. They did not '

appreciate each other’s problems as they should. They way in yhich Australian and United Kingdom interests could be reconciled must be worked out. In England it must be recognised that it v/gs 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 be by the employment of more and more people in her secondary industries. He believed Britain would sue-; ceed 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 of the British peoples in the future depended on the gradual peopling of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.