EMPIRE'S FUTURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23201, 27 May 1937, Page 9

EMPIRE'S FUTURE

MR STANLEY BALDWIN'S FAITH MANY AND VARIED PROBLEMS UNDERSTANDING ESSENTIAL (British Official Wireless) (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) RUGBY, May 25. •Mr Stanley Baldwin, at the Empire Day and Coronation banquet in London last night, made no reference to his impending resignation, but spoke of his hopes and fears for the future of the Empire. " The British Commonwealth of Empire," he said, " is the greatest political experiment yet tried in the world, and failure of it may mean disaster. I believe we shall not hold together unless we recognise common ideals, common inspiration, common love of freedom of the individual and of the body politic. Let us have sympathy and understanding of each other's problems, then we shall be less liable to criticise. Let us have faith in our country, faith in our own future, and faith in one another. The British Constitution has grown to what it is by the work of men like you and me—just ordinary men who had to adapt the Government of the country to the environment of the age. I have been at many Imperial Conferences and I have been in London on many occasions that visitors haye come to us from all over the world, but I have never known such a feeling among the family in London as at th;is time of the Coronation." ;■ THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE NO CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS LONDON, May 25. -As a result of to-day's inaugural meeting of the Imperial Conference Constitutional Committee, comprising the heads of delegations and legal advisers, it is virtually certain that, contrary to earlier expectations, no Empire constitutional crisis will emerge from the conference. It is understood that Mr Casey is emphatic that Australia has not the slightest intention of agreeing to any alteration to Australians' rights to be British subjects. Sir Donald Somerell (Attorneygeneral), on behalf of Britain, took a line similar to Mr Baldwin, whose speech last evening was really directed to those dominions —mainly Canada and South Africa—seeking to tinker with the Constitution, when he declared: " Do not let us put our Constitution in a strait waistcoat." The Technical Sub-committee appointed by to-day's heads of delegations will be confronted by the issue that General Hertzog raised, dealing with the nationalisation of aliens in the dominions and whether they attained full status, and the thorny problem of how British subjects are affected in dominions such as Canada arid South Africa, who have passed their own nationality laws.