EMPIRE TRADE

Southland Times, Issue 21576, 14 December 1931, Page 7

EMPIRE TRADE

THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

EAGERLY ANTICIPATED.

(United Press Assn.—By Telegraph—Copyright.) (Rec. 5.5 p.m.) .Halifax (Nova Scotia) December 12.

“The day of the centralized Empire is past. We no longer live in a political Empire. We must now see to it that our ability and resources are thrown into the enterprise of building and strengthening an economic union," the Premier, Mr Bennett, said on arrival here to day from Britain. He declared that the Mother Country was meeting her problems with high courage and confidence and the coming Economic Conference at Ottawa would probably be the most important event of its kind ever held within the Commonwealth.

“The statement by Mr J. H. Thomas in which he told the House of Commons that Briatin was committed to the idea of the wheat quota was distinctly gratifying,” Mr Bennet said, “and marks the adoption of reciprocal trade agreements within the Empire. The people of Britan are looking forward with great interest to the Imperial Conference. The date cannot be fixed, of course, until after the Australian elections. With the adoption of the Statute of Westminster, the old political Empire disappears and everywhere I went in the Old Land I found the people looking forward to the conference in the belief that we will lay at Ottawa the foundations of a new economic Empire.”