EMPIRE DEVELOPMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18265, 5 December 1922, Page 8

EMPIRE DEVELOPMENT.

After a tour of the Dominions, the head of the delegation which was seeking support for the Empire Exhibition has returned to London convinced of the practicability of making the Empire self-supporting. This attitude epitomises the main object of the Exhibition itself. If it were possible for members of the general public in their hundreds of thousands to make journeys of investigation under similar conditions, the conclusion reached by Major Belcher woidd speedily become widespread. Being impos sible, the scheme has been devised to place before the eyes of Britain what only a restricted number of citizens can see for themselves by travel. Concentrated in one qasiiyaccessible spot, the varied products, typifying the almost illimitable resources of the lands under the British flag, are to convey their mute lesson. The school of thought which advocates the fostering of Empire trade, instead of lamenting collapsed markets in Eastern and Southern Europe, has gained an ardent supporter in Major Belcher. If the range of exhibits to be collected at the Exhibition is made comprehensive, if quality and quantity are shown to be sufficient, there will be a wide and sudden accretion of advocates of the same principle. Tho benefits can go further, however. Those from the Dominions— and their numbers will probably be large—who visit the Exhibition, will be brought into close touch with the markets which await cultivation. The scheme of fostering Empire trade is one which has much more than sentiment to commend it. By the Exhibition there should be a convincing demonstration of the practical worth of concentrating on,, such an objective.