FAMILY SPIRIT

Taranaki Daily News, 30 December 1929, Page 11

FAMILY SPIRIT

BRITAIN AND DOMINIONS. AN INTRICATE PROBLEM. London, Nov. 14. At the Lord Mayor's banquet on November 9, which he attended for the first time, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald met with a great reception. In responding to the toast of “His Majesty’s Ministers,” he gave what he called a brief up-to-date account of his stewardship. Dealing with the “Empire Family,” the Prime Minister said: “The Dominions, young, growing, and virile, and we together face one of the most intricate problems that politicians ever had to face. The problem is how to unite in the family unity two apparently diametrically opposed objects—the object of independent nationhood and the object- of common allegiance. The Imperial Conference of 1926 is regarded as a critical conference. There is a committee representative of the Dominions and ourselves trying to hammer out in the language of constitutional law how the general declarations of the 1926 conference can be carried out.

“I pray that the delegates from the Dominions and our own delegates do remember that, whatever the temptation may be to the contrary, the Commonwealth of British Nations must be kept: together, and can be kept together only in so far as it remembers the family spirit, only in so far as wo subordinate the sense of individualism to the sense of community, only in so far as we find the pride in our national traditions greater than the mere badges of independent, authority. (Cheers.) The community of tho family is tho most inspiring mode of expressing, individuality. "Man cannot live by bread alone, nor can the Commonwealth be bound by trade alone. But there are common markets available for mutual trading, and in this business of mutual economic advantage, exchange of goods, industrial helpfulness, 1 hope that the Economic Conference which will meet next year will be helpful in solving difficulties and suggesting ways of procedure.”