BRITISH COMMUNITIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20316, 26 January 1928, Page 9

BRITISH COMMUNITIES

GROWTH OF NATIONAL SPIRIT. VIEWS OF SIR ROBERT HORNE. (Press Association —By Telegraph Copyright ) MELBOURNE, January 25. Sir Robert Horne, addressing the Constitutional Club, expressed the conviction that the conferring of equal status on the dominions would foster the growth the nation'al spirit, which would mateiially benefit the. Empire. He said that the Empire was bound by spiritual sentiment more than by anything else, although they had to recognise that that spirit might greatly be invigorated and strengthened. Some wiseacres seemed to think that equal status might lead to a feeling of greater detachment as between one portion of the Empire and the others, or to the growth of the national spirit of Australia, New Zealand, or Canada, which would make the dominions stand more aloof in their relationship with the Mother Country. Sir Robert Horne said that he did not share this apprehension at all, nor did he anticipate any such difficulty. Instead of deprecating any growth of national spirit in the British communities he would welcome it. He ventured to predict that _it would be all to the good and in the interests of the Empire. Sir Robert Horne reviewed the economic problems, showing how greatly industry had been affected by strikes, and how prosperity in the United States followed the recognition of the economic fact that the interests of Capital and Labour were identical.