EMIGRATION

Marlborough Express, Volume LIII, Issue 195, 19 August 1919, Page 7

EMIGRATION

-CHAIN OF STATES .BOUND THE

WORLD.

TRUE CONCEPTION OF EMPIRK

[Press Assooiatiow.] Austrtnian and N.Z. Cable Association LONDON, Aug. 17. Speaking at a luncheon given to Mr Pearce, Dominion generals, and Archbishop Riley, on the evo of their return, Colonel Amery, Under-Secvei-tary fcxr the Colonies, ©ulogised the citizen soldiery, who woi'e largely attributable to British emigration.. The' more the Dominions vvere strengthened by emigration th© more tho Erapir-?: wold be militarily fitjrengbhoned. Similarly each emigrant to the Dominions was twenty times more valuable to Britain economically than an emigrant to America. The ■emigration of ex.^ejrvice men to the Diominions would increase the population of the opter Empire, which was important from the. point of view of defence. < Australia was alongside the teeming millions of Asia,, and was conjointly IKssDonsible witjli Canada and South Africa, for the defence of the Pacific . and: Indian Oceans. " It was impossible to defend the Empire from Britain, went on Colonel Amery. The future command of the seas required an Imperial naival system, with a fully-equipped base, including ship-biulding, on every ocean/ Australia, Canada, South Africa, and other parts of the Empire should be each capable of buildiing and manning its own fleetj. They wanted a substitute for tth© present system of Imperial defence, with an immense preponderance art one point —a new system consisting of a defensive chain, of which each link would be similarly equipped to sustain its own defence./ Th© Empire had politically passed beyond the time wheiu Impeirial imity was achievable by centralisation. The true conception of Empire implied decentralisation, and the creation, of a chain of States round the world,, each entitled to regard itself as th© centre of the_ whole, from the point of view of duties and responsibilities. Mr Pearce, assuming that Colonel. Amery was speaking in r behalf of Cabinet, regarded tho speech as of Impeirial importance.