EMPIRE DEVELOPMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22616, 2 January 1937, Page 8

EMPIRE DEVELOPMENT

Lord Bledisloe's vigorous speech before the Empire Industries Association upon the neglect of Kmpire development is a challenge to statesmanship in all countries of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Me looks inward and outward and far ahead. 11is view extends from the tragic problems of the distressed areas of the Motherland to the need for peopling empty spaces of the Dominions. Me thinks not only in terms of social well being but also in terms of defence, of development, of unification, of cooperation and of duty to race and to the world. Me pleads for vision but realises that can only come from knowledge ; he asks for action but knows that the will to give the Empire "height and strength" must be cultivated. That end he well serves by speeches such as that which is published to-day. "Are we not tempted to concentrate over much on the affairs of other nations and all too little on those of our own Imperial family?" he asks. The international problems of the times, the unrest and sense of change, compel close attention, but the very gravity of these problems ought to be a stimulation to greater constructive. Empire effort as one form of safeguard against menace from without, and as a steadying force for the whole world. It has been said by an American historian that if the British Empire did not exist it would be necessary to create it. Menace to British power and trade "automaticallv evoke friendlv

alliances and a sense of solidarity with the Empire on the part of other nations. . . . The world cannot afford to let England fail or the Empire dissolve into its component parts." But the check to development encourages those who in many tongues question the British right to occupy so much territory. It must be resumed with rational vigour if that clamour is to be stilled.