EMPIRE UNITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22627, 15 January 1937, Page 8

EMPIRE UNITY

The Empire Unity campaign that has been launched in Britain will command the support of many New Zealanders. "All for each and each for all ... a brotherhood in time of peace, a solid phalanx in time of adversity or peril"—in such words as these Sir Henry Page Croft, M.P., has expressed the spirit of the movement. There is, of course, no doubt as to the unity of the Empire in time of peril. There is no more chance of the Dominions "dropping off like ripe fruit" than there was in 1914. Relations in time of peace are those of "family" intimacy. At all times the common allegiance to the Crown makes a bond which some foreign peoples regard as a miracle. While all this is recognised by those behind the Empire Unity campaign, their opinion is that the Empire is ill-knit and lacks the machinery for defence and consultation. They say that only the first part of the policy of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain has been adopted, and that there remains a greater task and a greater ideal—the creation of a complete partnership of ali British peoples. They have initiated the movement at this moment because the "brave effort of Britain to lead the world along the path of disarmament and to promote the ideals of the League of Nations" has failed. Therefore, they demand the widest measures of collective security for the Empire, measures which embrace everything from cooperation in trade and the develop merit of resources to migration. In this manner, it is argued, the Empire will safeguard itself, and, perhaps, help to bring about a saner order of things throughout the troubled world. Immediate menaces strengthen this call for the means of closer cohesion. They have closed the political ranks in a remarkable manner in Britain, evidence of the traditional spirit. The more that unity is expressed in the wider political field of the Commonwealth of Nations, the stronger will be the influence to impose control upon the I turbulent.