PRESSMEN AND EMPIRE

Taranaki Daily News, 9 August 1930, Page 13 (Supplement)

PRESSMEN AND EMPIRE

GATHERING KNOWLEDGE FUTURE OF THE BRITISH RACE. A QI’ESTIOX OF ORGAXIS UI'JON. (From Our Correspondent.) London, July 3. Mr. T. C. List (proprietor of- the Taranaki Daily News) considers that the Imperial Press Conference has been a wonderful experience to the men front overseas, inasmuch as it has given thc.ii the opportunity of seeing in a limited time a great deal of England in its vaiious aspects, of hearing its loading statesmen on national and international questions, and gaining first-hand knowledge of the economic problems confront-ino-°the Empire at the present moment. "The conference,” said Mr. List,-“has I been the means of our getting to know, and knowing intimately through being thrown together so often and so closely, representatives from the various parts of the Empire. Indeed, there never could have been in the history of Gr.eat Britain so representative a Parliament of responsible and informed men as that comprised in the Fourth Imperial Press Conference. This association has resulted in air of uz learning much about the affairs, the problems, the resources, and the prospects of the lands comprised in the Commonwealth of Nations called the British Empire, and when we. return to our respective countries we shall be able to write and talk with undori standing and sympathy of the affairs of Empire ■ . "For England, our ancestral home, we shall have stronger affection than ever. Wo have been privileged, as few have been privileged, to see her from the inside, and nothing has boon hidden from ns; ail has been opened to uz—the. good and the bad, the successes and the failures, the sweets and the bitters. In consequence, we know that the near old land 13 ‘hard up against it’ economically, just as fiard as she yas militarily when' she bore the burden of the war. “Wo also know the innate resource, strength and character of the British race, ami that it has the ability to rise to the occasion and again assert itself as the dominant trading and commercial com ilium ty of th e world. This is true and it should never be forgotten. No Empire in the world's history ever possessed such diverse lands, with su.?h o great natural resources, such opportunities for trade expansion as the British Empire does, nor one where the sentiment of the outlying parts is so strongly favourable towards the central body. It is all a question of organisation. and the great Empire of which we are comnonent parts will be the most wonderful and prosperous the world lias seen. The Empire has not seen its last days, a,i some cf its■ detractors and its own pessimists would have us believe; ft :s only at the beginning of its development. That we have a duty in tin's •/reat work is one of the lessons borne upon us from overseas as a result of the. work of the, conference, and what we have seen of the economic, social ami political life of the Homeland. J't i« a duty which will be performed faithfully, if J. correctly judge- the feelings and views of my colleagues.’’