IMPERIAL RELATIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19675, 29 June 1927, Page 11

IMPERIAL RELATIONS.

POLICY OF AUSTRALIA. FEDERATION'S DEVELOPMENT. A. and N.Z. NEW YORK, June 27 Professor Sir W. Harrison Moore, Dean of the Faculty of Law at Melbourne University, delivered his first lecture at Chicago University. His subject was: "Australia in Imperial and Foreign Relations." The lecturer drew attention to the Commonwealth's remoteness from lands peopled by whites, her proximity to the Asiatic populations and her sparsely-set-tled areas, a large portion of which arcs within the tropics As Australia's exports wore mostly foodstuffs and raw materials, the fact related her to (lit- problems of every industrial country in the world. Australia's chief customer was Britain, which had supplied the capital that had enabled the Commonwealth to bo developed free from the serious disabilities associated with pioneering in other countries. The sea routes were vital to Australian trade. Therefore Australia was profoundly interested m the maintenance of sea power, by means of which ocean transport was protected. The "White Australia" policy envisaged a community of British stock. In tracing the process of transition in colonial government, the lecturer said the j Australian federation' bad not produced ! any doubts about loosening the tie of I Empire. The federation had led not so ! much to concentration on external affairs as on internal social and economic policy, though this was backed by a strong sense of Empire unity and Empire citizenship. Australia's political leaders had entered into discussions on the responsibilities of other parts of the' Empire as equals with the citizens of those parts. He instanced Australia's action regarding the introduction of Chinese labour on the Rand, and the insistence upon white labour on mail steamships. Tlio lecturer said the flexibility of tho relations between Britain and Australia i under responsible government was regarded j as the principle on which colonial self- i government was based. , j