IMPERIAL CO-OPERATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19875, 20 February 1928, Page 10

IMPERIAL CO-OPERATION.

[FOSTERING EMPIRE TRADE. ;;; iVALUE OF PREFERENCES. WELCOME TO MR. AMERY. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. A. and N.Z.-Sun. LONDON, Feb. 17. A representative gathering of British, Dominion and colonial administrators, financiers and industrialists attended a luncheon given by the Empire Producers' Association, as a welcome to the Secretary of State for the Dominions, Mr. L. S. Amery. Those present included Lord Gleridyne, the Earl of Clarendon, Lord Rodney, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. W. C. Briageman, the Under-Secre-tary for the Colonies, Mr. W. G. Ormsby-Gore, the Financial Secretary to tho Treasury, Mr. A. M. Samuel, and jMr. J. H. Thomas, M.P.

The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mr. J. G. Coates, cabled his congratulations and said he hoped Mr. Amery's tour would be productive of real value in promoting Imperial unity and co-opera-jtion.

The chairman of the association, Mr. !B. H. Morgan, said it regarded Mr. Amery as the greatest advocate of Imperial preference in tho Government to Which they were indebted for preferences on sugar, tobacco, wine and dried fruits, which had vastly stimulated Empire production. That expansion was merely a hint of tha developments likely to follow a fuliblooded policy. ~ Production in the Dominions. Mr, Amery, in responding to the toast of his health, said he had returned with a tenfold greater optimism, and a feeling that a new spirit was stirring the Empire to a sense of its common destiny, responsibility and idealism, that would enable the Empire to triumph .over all difficulties and achieve a worldwide combination, with absolute freedom and effective nnity. He paid a tribute to the amazing projgress of primary and secondary production in tho Dominions, and also of research, and instanced New Zealand's aim to create the world's leading dairy research institute, in memory of her late (Prime Minister, Mr. W. F. Massey^ Mr. Amery said the British Government was co-operating through the Empire Marketing Board in large-scale research, which was vital to the efficiency of Empire production. "If we embark on a new policy of Empire co-operation," he said, "it is essential to stimulate efficiency in every part cf the Empire, and j)of. to provide a shelter for inefficiency. If Britons make up their minds to develop Imperial preference, it will not be sheltiering inefficiency at the expense of the British consumer, but will be still further encouraging efficiency and securing increased production without increased cost. Creating Economic Development. •'Similarly British manufacturers cannot fexpect preferences unless they keep efficiency in tha forefront in order to conquer the Empire markets. It will be disastrous to British trade if Australia and New Zealand should discontinue jtheir preferences. "The Empire needs to create economic development by co-ordinating its immense human material resources and by organising its piftchasing power. Every part could thus achieve prosperity and social wellbeing such as the world has not known."

Sir Hugh Denison, the late Commiseloner for Australia in America, in toasting the health of Mr. Morgan, said he had studied the American methods of business, mass production, salesmanship and organisation, and had heard leading industrialists explain how they proposed to capture the markets of tho world. It Was especially interesting to hear them, because the majority of the successful men were of British stock. They admitted that the only markets still open .were inside the British Empire, The only remedy against this invasion was Imperial preference.