EMPIRE PARLIAMENTS

Southland Times, Issue 22473, 8 November 1934, Page 7

EMPIRE PARLIAMENTS

CONFERENCE OF MEMBERS.

ECONOMIC PLANNING URGED.

(United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 12.5 a.m.) Melbourne, Nov. 7. Speaking at the conference of the Empire Parliamentary Association Mr Malcolm MacDonald, Parliamentary Secretary for Dominion Affairs in the British Government, said that the Ottawa agreements provided a check on unhealthy economic nationalism, which was at the root of the depression. Part of the spirit of Ottawa was to . try to get the Empire out of its difficulties, but not by plunging the rest of the world into still greater difficulties. The agreements were an attempt to carry the British countries particularly and the world in general safely through the economic blizzard. Representatives of Britain, South Africa, Canada, India and New Zealand are attending the conference. Mr W. P. Endean (New Zealand) declared his complete faith in the efficacy of Ottawa, and advocated a system of economic Empire planning. It had. been said that it would be uneconomic for New Zealand to produce steel, yet Britain was producing butter at 2/6 a pound against New Zealand’s sevenpence, showing that effective planning was essential.