CLOSERCO-OPERATION

Taranaki Daily News, 5 July 1930, Page 14

CLOSERCO-OPERATION

SLOGAN FOR BRITISH EMPIRE. . NO TIME FOR PARTY STRIFE. In. an able speech, Sir John Sinclair, in the Legislative Council on Wednesday, made a strong plea for closer Empire co operation, closer industrial co-op-eration , and closer party co-operation. Sir John said he wanted to stress the value, of co-operation,'which, in his opinion, should be the slogan of every part of the British Empire. Closer trading cooperation, closer industrial co-operation and closer party co-operation was the spirit of the Empire League. If unemployment in New Zealand was to be solved there was needed closer industrial copoeration and what must react favourably upon industry, party co-operation, too. Many questions' would come up for consideration at the Imperial Conference, but he felt sure nothing would, be done to weaken Empire unity. The Imperial Conference of 1926 went far enough. There were not many legal links left. There was the King and there was also the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.' The last conference evolved independent status for the Dominions; it had attractions for many, but it had its danger, 1 - also. Autonomy might prove incompatible with unity as a whole. Unity had been the strength of the people in the past; it should be their watchword'in the future. “I think we must acknowledge there has been a growing call in somh parts of tliQ British Empire,”' continued Sir John. “It is a call that has been voiced over and over again in our Dominion. It is being loudly voiced to-day. It is a call for closer co-operation between political parties. It would help industry, All co-operation must react favourably upon industry.'ln our young country, where we are all workers in one direction or another, there is small room for the party system. In older countries it is obviously a difficult problem. In England party has grown up for generations. A gulf has grown up between the parties there which so far has not been passable. There is no room for any such gulf in our young country. ■ “All must seo that the movement today is toward peace. To secure peace is the spirit of the League of Nations. Are political parties to remain unaffected by the spirit of this movement? We have seen representatives of some of the leadin" countries of the world 1 seated round a table trying to find how .all could best co-operate to bring about', international peace. The difficulties that were met

with were only to be expected. Some of them have not been solved, but more than a beginning has been made. Where questions of vital importance are concerned it is well to take them slowly. ‘■Again I ask are political parties to remain unaffected by the spirit of. this movement? Are there, to bo no roundtable conferences between them? They all know; that the alternative to co-op-eration must be strife. All can see that the best that could be given by any political party cannot be given under the party system. The day cannot be very distant when tho people will rebel against their interests being made the ■battledore and the shuttlecock of party strife. “We have had in the Mother Country, where tho problem is a far more difficult one than is ours, an invitation to a first step towards that party co-operation which is so urgently needed,” Sir John Sinclair continued. “It is long overdue. It must come. Only a few weeks ago in the Parliament of Canada complaint was made—and we may be sure It was well founded—that party strife was seriously interfering with industry. Speaking in Canada early in the year, the South African statesman, General Smuts, whose diplomatic work during the war must have given him an insight into the attitude of many countries, expressed the conviction that British people might well look to Parliament for co-operation in trying to settle its difficulties. Only the other day in the Australian Commonwealth the Prime Minister urged Parliament to resolve itself into an economic council to try to deal with the position. And so we see when we examine conditions in other parts of the Empire that what is being called for to-day is not only industrial co-operation, but party co-operation, too. “Now is no time for party strife. There are higher purposes to be achieved calling for the best help that can be given by one and all for the trading strength of our Empire. Here lurks the nightmare of unemployment. The trading strength of our Empire has yet to be regained. There was co-operation during the war, with results we know. Now the war is over, but every business man knows that the warfare of international competition for trade is. going on keener than ever. I am positive that, if we set on one side the terrible period covered by the war, there was never in the history of our Empire, in the history of our Dominion, a greater need for co-opera-tion —Empire co-operation, industrial co-operation and party co-operation — than there is to-day.”