THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1927. AN EMBASSY OF EMPIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19567, 21 February 1927, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1927. AN EMBASSY OF EMPIRE.

It is well that plans for Mr. Amery's visit to the Dominions are being given practical thought. The proposal was made soon after the alteration in the Colonial Office that provided for the Dominions receiving eminent consideration in a special department and gave him an added titulai distinction as Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs. The alteration in the office was an. overdue recognition that these practically self-governing units of the Empire had highly responsible business with the British Parliament, above the privileges and needs of Crown colonies and protectorates; and an inevitable corollary of that recognition was an increase of attention to means of transacting business with them. Among these means, it was then readily acknowledged, the chief place should be given to the personal touch. However rapidly methods of written and similar communication might develop, these alone were seen to be insufficient. There was, of course, the Imperial Conference, growing in utility ;■ but many things could not wait for its triennial assembling. On the side of the Dominions themselves there was an effort to give larger dignity and power to their High Commissioners, successors to officers almost wholly absorbed in routine commercial agencies. The British Government met this advance more than half way, in the confidential discussions with these representatives that were initiated by Mr. Baldwin. It was a highly significant and important departure that they should be called to meet him and the Foreign Minister in this informal way. Yet so far every development of this kind centred in London. Valuable as it was, and still may be, this method needed, and still needs, to make it complete, some reciprocal arrangement bringing members of the British Government personally, into touch with the Dominions—not merely the Dominions' representatives. Unofficially, members of the British Parliament make occasional visits in parties to see the Empire for themselves. Why should not the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs make an occasional official visit 1 ! This idea Mr. Amery him- , self propounded, and the prospect of its realisation was welcomed very cordially, in this Dominion as else- ' where in the Empire. That it is now being given practical shape is hailed with gladness for many reasons. For one thing, it would do something, along with such Royal i visits as that to which New Zealand i is now looking with a tip-toe eagerness, to help the Empire to realise itself. It is not yet, as a prominent Liberal member of the House of Commons recently confessed, "a ■ people's Empire," He insisted that the average British citizen has a very hazy conception of it, attributing this defect to the haphazard and unbusinesslike manner in which Imperial affairs'have so long been con , ducted. By that average citizen the Empire is riot seen to be what it really is—the most important fact of our times: "For him the Empire still means subliine words, not sublime realities and sublime opportunities." This, on British testimony, is a defect in the average man's outlook in the Homeland, The case is not otherwise in the Dominions. Exhibitions give their educational enlightenment on occasion, lending vividness to the printed word and pictured story. A Royal visit awakens emotional appreciation of national solidarity. A tour by the Secretary of State ' for the Dominions is calculated to add a very useful influence. He would travel on business bent, as the chief organising officer of John Bull and Co., and the fact that the Empire is a sroinc: concern would gain in clearness and reality everywhere. Nor would the result be mental only. Such a visit would have in it very practical opportunities of richly intimate and informative consultation, worth more than reams of correspondence. The work of Mr. Amerv's office and the Imperial business of the Dominions' Governments should both profit immensely. That Mr. Amery should be the first Secretary of State so to go officially . afield throughout the Dominions would be a very happy inauguration of the new order. His interest in Imperial development is not a birth of yesterday. He was one of the young men whom Lord Milner took out to South Africa in critical times almost a generation ago—" his young men" as the group has been appreciatively called time and again. Before ho had risen to Cabinet distinction he was one of a Parliamentary party that made a world tour to enlarge their acquaintance with Britain overseas, and came then to New Zealand. At the Admiralty he proved his intense concern for the safety of the Empire s communications. Since his appointment to the Colonial Office he has shown, more than did any of his predecessors, a wise care for cooperation with the oversea Governments As chairman of the Empire Marketing Board he has been indefatigable in promoting commercial understanding throughout the Empire He can bring to bear on Imperial problems a mind well stored with facts, and he is gifted ' cx P re Ss that mind in markedly aistmet and impressive fashion I these things promise to make the contemplated visit of great service. v, '°. uld be welcome for his own I and his record's sake; he can be

assured of . a double welcome as one supremely charged with the administration of affairs in which the Dominions are vitally interested. The time is fully ripe for this sort of mission. The Empire's economic co-operation is being seen as a necessity. In various ways a movement, is afoot to give it extension and vigour. Mr. Amery's personal presence would do much to make this movement a fully effective campaign.