Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WED., DEC. 30, 1925. DEVELOPING THE EMPIRE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16921, 30 December 1925, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WED., DEC. 30, 1925. DEVELOPING THE EMPIRE.

]'V\v people comprehend the grdat. potentialities of the Empire. We are so apt to view things from our own narrow circle. Those who talk of the decadence of Britain arc people with no sense of perspective. They fail to ! observe the growth of that. Greater Britain, out of which tlie nation will emerge from its present vicissitudes a stronger and more capable race, with 1 closer co-operation between England arid the overseas dominions than oldtime prejudices would ever have allowed. A most notable illustration of this development is given in the recent decision of the Imperial Cabinet to : accept the main principles of the re- ' port of the East African Commission, l’arliament is to be asked in the coming session early in the New Year to authorise an Imperial guarantee on development loans in East Africa to an amount m;t exceeding ten millions. This is no! indeed a new departure, 1 !io Daily Telegraph explains, but an important extension of the practice adopted in recent years and regarded as necessary for the building up of Empire commerce. It is not merely a scheme for holpinfg East Africa, and incidentally for helping English industry, but rather a big advance along a path of trade policy which is full of promise. It took long years to scotch the idea that it was no business of the British taxpayer to take an active hand in the economic development of the Crown Colonies, the theory being that ilioy sljonld be left to work out their own economic life, however slowly and laboriously. The corollary of that idea, no less tenaciously held as a principle of faith, was that the British Treasury ought not to gunr- ! an tec a single shilling unless it also I controlled, directly or indirectly, its j spending. The outlying estates of the ! Empire were thus left in an undeveloped and neglected condition. Only the necessity of finding new markets and fresh sources of supply of raw materials has prepared public opinion to accept such a proposal as that for which Colonel Amery hopes shortly 1o obtain the consent of Parliament. East Africa —and the term covers Uganda, Kenya, Nyasaland, and the mandate Tanganyika Territory —is a vast undeveloped estate of a million square miles in extent, and with a population of something like twelve millions. Its principal requirement is increased transport facilities. Every development project in those parts conies back in Iho end 1o the question of cost of transport. That also lias been the ease in West Africa, where file increased trade activities of recent years are due almost entirely to improved transport and harbor facilities, Itul in East Africa, Ihe distances are such that without; new roads and railways it: is impossible to go ahead with Ihe work of economic development. •‘ To-day, ’ ’ says the Telegraph, “we read with amusement the angry controversy which raged in the Liberal Cabinet of 1802 over the Uganda railway, against which Sir William Hnrcourt and every anti-imperialist Liberal fought tooth and nail, as though .it were a robbery of the British taxpayer that he should be asked to eon tribute c. farthing towards a railway from Mombasa up to the Bakes, which they said could never pay. Those who look that view were blindly jaundiced by their prejudices against imperialism, and certainly never looked forward to trade conditions such as those which' prev ail at present. Yet only bitter' experience has brought Liberal opinion in Lancashire round to support (lit; State guarantees to the loans raised by certain companies engaged in the development of the cot-ton-growing areas in the Soudan. The Lancashire cotton industry suffered disastrously from its long failure to see the mistake of not making sure that sufficient; supplies of its raw'

material are grown within the Empire, to protect it against the worst effects of a shortage and the manipulations of foreign speculators. A thousand milos of new railways are contemplated in. East Africa, together Avitlt improvements in harbor ami port facilities, new bridges, and new main roads, etc., The catalogue, indeed, is so long that oiio wonders how far the ten millions will suffice, and probably they will only be the beginning of a large outlay, which, wil pay for itself'over and over again'. There is no question of-going ahead too fast, as was dime, for example, in Canada before Ihe war, when l-lic fever for building trans-, Continental railway tracks was at itsheight. It is a question rather of making the first expensive starr, where private enterprise may fairly ask for a State guarantee in return for per': maneut benefits of indisputable value. These State-guaranteed loans will provide a large amount of work for many of our staple industries. There is no difference in principle between the State guarantee given to British rail: Avay companies to enable them to raise money for the electrification of their systems at a reasonable rate of interest, and the guarantees now proposed. If the former had not been granted many electrification and other schemes would not have been undertaken, and the number of the unemployed in the steel, iron, and electrical t rades would have been largely increased. There is no doubt'about the splendid economic future of East Africa, when once its transport system is made reasonably adequate 1o ils needs, and we should also-bear in mind that as the economic development of Ihe Crown Colonies and Protectorates proceeds apace, so will the number of good openings multiply for those who are ready to push their fortunes abroad. Empire Settlement' is not a Dominion problem only. It is also one lor every form of Crown Colony, especially now that closer study and better knowledge of tropical diseases are diminishing some of the more obvious drawbacks and disabilities attending life in many Dependencies of Ihe Empire."