EMPIRE COMMONWEALTH

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 8, 31 July 1930, Page 4

EMPIRE COMMONWEALTH

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE UNPRECEDENTED PROBLEMS MUST KEEP UP WITH TIMES LONDON, July 30. The Imperial Conference lias to face unprecedented constitutional problems, said Mr Ramsay MacDonald, at the annual meeting of the United Kingdom branch of tin 1 Empire Parliamentary Association. “We have to make up our minds that there is a change in the life of the Empire,” he said. “As individuals we cannot live in the past, and must not be over eager or imagine wc arc living in the future, but must combine both. Surely the time has come when wo should think and act more as 'all one party,' eliminating the conception that when one party is in power no other party exists. As far as unity is concerned, an attempt should be made to get Imperial questions considered in the first place by all parties, remembering that the nations of the Commonwealth arc very much greater than any party. ’ ’ Mr J. H. Thomas, referring to Mr Baldwin's likening of Angle-Dominion relations to those of sons and father, said the opinion of the old man might sometimes be considered. He intended to ask whether the time had come to consider giving the old country Dominion status. (Laughter). The annual report explained that elections overseas had largely prevented the delegation going abroad in 1930, while the Imperial, naval and ‘press conferences had prevented a meeting in London,