THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, October 2, 1936. PARLIAMENT OF COMMERCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23001, 2 October 1936, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, October 2, 1936. PARLIAMENT OF COMMERCE

Delegates, many of whom have travelled across the world to be present, are assembled in Wellington to-day for the inauguration of the fourteenth Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire. This periodica] gathering of businessmen might well be spoken of as the Empire’s Parliament of Commerce. It is required by the rules of the Federation of Chambers that the Congress shall be held alternately in London and elsewhere in the Empire, in the latter case as decided by the Congress at its preceding meeting. The compliment implied in the choice of New Zealand as the venue for this Congress is one of which the people of the Dominion as a whole will be deeply sensible. The object of the Congress is to provide “ an opportunity for fuller and more representative

discussion of, and decisions upon, the many questions affecting Empire commerce and industry and an occasion whereon leading members of British Chambers of Commerce may come into personal contact.” The influence of such a gathering as this, insofar as it provides an exceptional opportunity for the making of valuable personal contacts, may well be of outstanding importance to a country like New Zealand, which, though sturdy in growth, is youthful in experience. It is well that our island home should be better known to, and our social and economic problems more fully understood by, representative citizens of the Mother Country and of the various Empire units with which we share a common Imperial interest. Occasions, official and otherwise, during their stay in the Dominion, should enable our distinguished guests to acquire some knowledge whiqh, we may modestly hope, will be to their advantage, v/hile it is certain that they should be able to inform us of much by which we may profit. There is, however, a more important and necessarily less parochial aspect of the deliberations which will commence in Wellington to-day. It relates to the agenda of the Congress —the impressively wide range of subjects destined to come wdthin the purview of this unofficial Parliament, and the extent to which the decisions taken may actually influence the policies of Empire Governments. For it has to be remembered that the Congress of Chambers has an acknowledged status among councils which devote their special organisations and abilities to matters touching the expansion of Imperial commercial interests, and that its judgment on the perplexing problems that are disturbing modern business possesses an unusual degree of authoritativeness. When, therefore, the delegates from the United Kingdom, India, Canada, Australia, the Irish Free State, Rhodesia, the West Indies and the various New Zealand Chambers come to consider resolutions relating to shipping and other forms of transport and communication, monetary policy, the freeing of the choked channels of world and intra-imperial trade, migration as it affects the lessdeveloped and underpeopled parts of the Empire, and a host of associated subjects, some illuminating discussions may be anticipated. We wish the Congress the fullest measure of sucojss and accord in its important deliberations, and we are confident that, outside the conference chamber as in it, the time of visiting delegates will be most pleasantly and profitably occupied.