EMPIRE TRADE

Southland Times, Issue 20940, 25 November 1929, Page 7

EMPIRE TRADE

FRAMING A POLICY MR STANLEY BALDWIN’S SUGGESTION A. CHANGED OUTLOOK . (United Press Assn.—By Telegraph—Copyright.) (Rec. 5.5 p.m.) London, November 23. Attention is attracted to a passage in Mr Stanley Baldwin’s recent speech to the Conservatives in which he said that in framing an Empire policy to which the Conservative leaders must devote themselves, it was essential they should take the youth of the party into their councils. A generation may be needed to effect unity. The burden of the fight may well lie on the shoulders of the young. The Parliamentary correspondent of the Daily Telegraph learns that the inquiry indicated by Mr Baldwin will be thorough and systematic. It is hoped it will be possible to frame a policy in detail which will avoid stalling the theories of 20 years ago, and take a full account of modern conditions.

The correspondent learns that Mr Baldwin and his colleagues express the opinion that Empire development must inevitably be linked up with the question of employment here. It is stated that matters connected with an expansion of Empire trade must be the outcome of the consultation so far as the dominions are concerned, but Britain has a free hand in the colonies and protectorates which might be organized to produce the raw materials required without going outside the Empire to the extent necessary to-day. The fact that the Empire is now self-supporting is regarded in Conservative quarters as having, revolutionized the outlook. It is considered the time is ripe for a thorough re-examination of all possibilities of Empire trade. Mr Baldwin at present merely foreshadowed the production of a complete policy in due course. Conservative circles express the hope that the question will now be kept in the forefront on all platforms.