PARTNERS IN EMPIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19807, 30 November 1927, Page 12

PARTNERS IN EMPIRE.

BRITAIN ANI) DOMINIONS. CO-OPERATION AND UNITY. BEGINNING A NEW ERA. STATE LUNCHEON TO MR. AMERY CBY TELEGRAPH.— OWN CORRESPONDENT, j WELLINGTON. Tuesday. The Secretary of State for the Dominions, Mr. L. S. Amery and Mrs. Amery wero the guests of honour at a State luncheon held in the Town Hall to-day. There were nearly 600 guests present. The Prime Minister presided. In proposing the toast of the guests the Prime Minister said the function offered a unique opportunity to express dolight at having among them Mr. Amery and Mrs. Amery. Referring to the last Imperial Conference Mr. Coatos said the atmosphere had been very doubtful and it had been necessary to seek for a means of bringing about an understanding. In spite of many difficulties the representatives had loft the conference determined to strengthen still further the bonds which bound the peoples of the Empire toget.iior. Mr. Amery recognised that it was for the people of the Empire to make the best of the advantages which tho Empire possessed and he had the determination and will to know his Empire. They in New Zealand would meet more than half way any proposal that was likely to bring success. New Zealand asked Mr. and Mrs. Amery to take back the following message:—"New Zealand wishes to live within the Empire, to trade with tho Empire, and to grow by means of Empire migration." (Cheers.) The toast of the guests was drunk with musical honours. Value of Personal Contact. Mr. Amery expressed his great pleasure at the opportunity of meeting the leading men of tho Government and Wellington. It was with the desire to do his part to strengthen tho bonds of Empire that he had set forth on his present tour. Personal contact and very often informal discussions could achieve more than communication by cable. Imperial conferences after all brought only a few Ministers together, but such a tour as he was now making made it possible to meet many o) all classes and to learn the hopes, the desires and the ideals of one's fellow citizens of the Empire. The last. Imperial Conference marked the end of one era and the beginning of the next—the beginning of an era which took the freedom of each part of the Empire for granted and would be devoted to the development of great and wide co-operation. It was agreed also that the equality of status should be one of unity under a common Crown, with common loyalty, common political aspirations, common interests. Each member was organised as a separate community, each free to act according to its .own judgment, but each was also bound to do the thing that made for the unity and the welfare of the whole. It was an equality in unity, not an equality in separation. The Singapore Base. Each played its part according to its capacity, its genius for the common good, and New Zealand had certainly never failed. She had shown herself willing to share in all Imperial matters, in the maintenance of forces of defence, not only about her own shores, but in the establishment of the Singapore base. It was essential that the navies of the Empire should be able to work together. The Singapore base was an act of cooperation and not as an act of menace. What New Zealand had done in regard to the base was deeply appreciated by the people of Great Britain. Great Britain possessed a wide experience of foreign affairs and was willing to conduct those affairs not as a British obligation but as an obligation of the Empire as a whole. Britain was only qualified to exercise that leadership if she exercised it in a truly Imperial manner. Was Britain qualified to carry on that leadership? He ventured to suggest that evidence of the last few years at any rate, ought- not to condemn her in the eyes of her partners. Britain in the War Years.

The old hard stubborn temper brought her triumphant through the war years. Those years dissipated any doubts that may have been entertained. Britain was the mainstay of the Allies. From the very first day that she entered the war Germany's fate was sealed. Her unbreakable navy sealed the seas to Germany, but it was not in her navy alone that Great Britain threw her weight. In the early days round her tiny army was built the Empire army that carried on the struggle. Certainly during the war years she had not shown herself unworthy to he t rested with Empire leadership. What amazed him when ho looked back over the years that followed the war, was the way that Britain had carried on. She had met her debts and had never weakened the fabric of her credit. Britain had unflinchingly faced industrial problems. but had found means of coping.with thern. There might be individual cases where men were willing to live on the dole, but the great mass of the people were anxious and willing to work. The great bulk of the men wanted to get rid of the dole as soon as it was possible. In spite of all the difficulties of the Great War, Britain had gone on more boldly with social reforms than ever before. Part in World Politics. At the same time, Britain had shirked no part of her duties in European and world politics. In the colonial Empire a new conception of trusteeship had been adopted, aimed at. helping the backward races. We had always recognised our obligations for the security of the Empire, but in the past had regarded economic issues as the concern of the individual parts ol the Empire. Since the war, however, it had been realised that defence and foreign affairs and economic matters could not be separated into watertight compartments. It was thought in the past that, it, was unimportant where people went who left Britain, but to-day money was being spent freely in co-operation with other parts of the Empire fo assist migrants with their transport and their establishment overseas. This was being done in the spirit of Empire building and not as a mere device to shift the burden of unemployment: on to other shoulders. Before the war it would have been thought an unheard of thing to spend a million a year merely to foster Empire trade, but' that money was now being freely spent in a scoro of ways to teach people that trade within the Empire was in the interests of its people. The flducation results had been impressive. Money was being spent with the same object -v research into productivity and development of industry and every year a richer and richer harvest would bo gained from this expenditure Fiscal preference also had been changed from a theoretical matter to a practical ono and a new aspect of Imperial responsibility. There were many parts of the Empire whose whole prosperity was dependent upon the operation of the fiscal system. Mr Amery said he could not doubt that there was no limit to the prosperity and development we could create in a generation or two. The immense develop merit of the United States in the last 50 years on a far smaller basis and area and with far smaller resources, gave some idea of what could bo achieved. We had a larger area and more recent science to aid us and far as they had gone wo could go much further yet. The speaker concluded amid hearty applause and the gathering broke up after the singing of the National Anthem.