NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20332, 13 August 1929, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

LINKS OF EMPIRE. Through the agency of an organisation cr.llcd "Links of Empire," of which Lady Apsley is the president, hundreds of people in Britain and the overseas Empire have been brought into touch by letter. In a recent communication to the Morning Post, Lady Apsley said the overseas correspondents with residents in tiic Home Country include planters in Assam, schoolboys in New Zealand, fur traders and trappers in Alaska, teachers in Queensland and Tasmania, fruit fanners in Rhodesia, and links in Vancouver, Britsh Columbia. Nova Scotia, in the back blocks and the cities, whose letters aro always interesting, very human, and often instructive, and make one proud of the age-old links of race and understanding. In the separate junior branch there arc correspondents from the age of six upwards. In commending the efforts of the society, the Morning Post said that while material things have their use, British Empire is maintained by sentiment and affection. The British Empire is the sum of those who live within it, and is an expression of their spirit. Its unseen and tenacious strength consists in the millions of ties which unite heart to heart. In Canada, in Australia, in New Zealand, in South Africa, in the West Indies, there are the actual people with hearts and affections which go out to friends and relatives in the Mother Country. But with the passage of time these bonds are apt to weaken ; the new generation forgets the links which meant so much to the old; and so it is important to maintain Ihe little gossamers which together make the web—these personal interests which are, in sum, stronger than the policy of statesmen.

THE EMPIRE'S BUSINESS. Steps are being taken toward the formulation of a definite programme for developing the trade, of the Empire with a view to its submission to the Imperial Conference in 1930. In a letter to tho Times last month, Mr. Gilbert C. Vyle, chairman of the Preparatory Committee of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce, said the council of that body had decided that, in the first place, the work of preparing suggestions ami proposals should be undertaken at Home and in each of the Dominions by the various interests. - "The committee hopes in due courso to have the advantage of exchanging views with, and of considering the views of, these organisations and of co-operating with them in drawing up a programme of tho proposals oil behalf of British trado interests," lie observes. "I shall certainly welconio tho help and support of every organisation in this country interested in the development of the trade of tho Empire, and I trust that it will be possiblo in duo course to convene a conference when representatives of all organisations in this country will bo prepared to discuss with one another a programme of proposals as a result of their separate investigations. Steps are now being taken by the various organisations in Australia representing industry, commerce, finance and agriculture, to proceed on the same lines. I hope that similar steps will bo taken by the business interests of Canada,. South Africa and Now Zealand, and of India, and that the various interests in each part of Lho Empirb will draw up their programme of what is necessary for the development of tho trado of the Empire. If these programmes can bo brought together in London, some months before the next Imperial Conference, and out of them an agreed programme can be drawn up, such a programme of reforms and proposals would provide a basis for a world policy of trade within and without the British Common wealth of Nations. I believe we shall then have made a greater advance in our desire to develop 'the trade of the Empire as a whole than has hitherto been attempted. 1 know (hat an Imperial trade policy is easy to lay down but difficult of agreement. Yet if it could lie obtained it would be infinitely valuable. Governments can assist trade, but they cannot initiate it. That is for tho business peoples of the Empire."