EMPIRE ASSEMBLY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 303, 21 November 1938, Page 6

EMPIRE ASSEMBLY

PARLIAMENTARY MEMBERS

MEETING IN DOMINION. CENTENARY YEAR. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Nov. 20. Formal invitations to send delegates to New Zealand in 1940 foi a conference of the Empire 1 arliamentary Association will be sent this week to all branches of the association. To meet _ the convenience of Legislatures in the various parts of the Empire, it is proposed to hold the conference about the middle of October of that year. It will be the first conference of the association held in the Dominion, and a special committee has been appointed by Cabinet to make the necessary arrangements. Preliminary plans for the conference were discussed early this year, when several delegates from overseas branches who had attended the sequicentenary anniversary celebrations in New’ South AVales subsequently visited New Zealand. . . The branches ot the association in the various overseas Parliaments of the Empire are to be invited to send more than 70 delegates. Each branch will be invited to send the following number : Parliament of the United Kingdom 17 delegates; Dominion Parliament of Canada, nine; Provincial Parliaments of Canada, seven; Common'wealth Parliament of Australia, nine; State Parliaments of Australia, eight; Union of South Africa Parliament, seven; Central Legislature of India, six; Burma Legislature, one; Southern Rhodesia Parliament, one; Ceylon State Council, ; Northern Ireland Parliament, one; Bar bados Legislature, one; Jamaica. Legisature, one; Isle of Man Legislature, one; Bermuda Legislature, one; Bahamas Legislature,'one; Mauritius Legislature, one. A stay of 28 days in the Dominion by the visiting delegates is contemplated. Though no actual date has yet been fixed for the conference, it is suggested that this should begin in Wellington about the second or third week in October of 1940, after the session of the New Zealand Parliament that year. The conference is expected to la6t from three to four days, and the remaining 24 days would l>e occupied in travel to other parts of the Dominion. OPPORTUNE OCCASION. . The value of such a conference' was referred to by the Prime Minister (Kt. Hon. M. J. Savage), in an interview. He said the very constitution of the Empire Parliamentary Association would commend itself to most people, representing as it did the Parliaments or the Empire. In these days, when so many big problems were facing the world, it seemed mpst opportune that New Zealand should take advantage of the centennial to invite the branches of the Empire Parliamentary Association to hold a conference in New Zealand. It would be the first time that a conference of this nature had been held in the Dominion. Delegates had called at New Zealand in the past on their way to or from conferences in Australia, said M r Savage, but they jvere always disappointed that their brief visits prevented them seeing more of this country. This was particularly so with the delegates from the United Kingdom. There was always a good percentage of British delegates among the representatives at a conference ot the association, and for that reason alone the holding of a conference in New Zealand in 1940 would be helpful to the Dominion. It would enable the British representatives to obtain firsthand knowledge of New Zealand conditions.