EMPIRE CONGRESS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23196, 16 November 1938, Page 19

EMPIRE CONGRESS

LABOUR PARTY PLAN SUGGESTION FOR 1940 GATHERING IN NEW ZEALAND Proposals for a Labour conference to be jheld in New Zealand in 1940 and attended by representatives of all the Dominions are receiving consideration in Australia. It was stated recently in Sydney that the major purpose of the gathering would be to knit the views of the Dominions and English Labour parties into one common political design. If possible a joint policy on foreign affairs would also be formulated. Reports published in Sydney stated that the Australian and New Zealand Labour parties had expressed their intention to be represented at a conference, while Canadian and South African organisations had not yet been approsidied. Commenting on the proposals Mr. J. Beasley, leader of the Lang Federal Labour Party, said the date of the conference would be announced shortly. No specific confirmation of the Sydney announcements was obtainable in Auckland Labour circles yesterday. When interviewed by the Herald by telephone, the president of the New Zealarid Labour Party, Mr. J. Roberts, who is in Wellington, said he had not heard anything definite about the proposals. The proposed conference is believed to be the outcome of a suggestion made by the English Labour leader, Mr. Ernest' Bevin, when he visited Sydney for the British Commonwealth Relations Conference in August. When in Auckland, Mr. Bevin, who has been in the centre of both the industrial and the political activities of the Labour movement for over 25 years, mentioned that they of the Labour movement in Great Britain were particularly anxious to take counsel with Labour movements in different parts of the Empire.