EMPIRE AFFAIRS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 1179, 29 November 1924, Page 5

EMPIRE AFFAIRS.

PREFERENCE PRINCIPLE. , MR MASSEY HOPEFUL. Pel' Press Association. AUCKLAND. Nov. 28. When interviewed to-night, the Prime Minister said he was very glad to see that the new Government in Britain intended to give Parliament an opportunity of reconsidering the preference proposals agreed to in the first instance at the Imperial Economic Conference. It was just ns well to remember that the proposals which were dealt with at the conference did not by a very long way involve the whole principle of Empire preference. He believed that would come in time, but the British people were not quite ready for it yet. We must be satisfied to go quietly and let the British public particularly see that Empire preference would be as good for them as for the citizens of overseas Dominions.

Continuing, Mr Massey said if Britain’s industrial supremacy was to bo restored, it must be by peopling the unoccupied spaces of the overseas countries of the Empire. One could not help being anxious about the future of British industry when one noticed the efforts being made to promote trade with Russia while at the same time efforts on the part of the British Dominions to increase trade with the heart of the Empire met with little response. Mr Massey said an up-to-date Empire policy was needed.