A WELCOME SUGGESTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 February 1934, Page 6

A WELCOME SUGGESTION.

If only for the reason that the closer the personal intercourse between Dominion and Imperial Ministers the better for the countries concerned there is every reason to welcome the suggestion that the Secretary for the Dominions, Mr. J. H. Thomas, should visit Australia and New Zealand. As a man who has risen from the ranks, Mr. Thomas will find himself at home in the democratic atmosphere of the Dominion, while his experience in intra-Empire affairs, particularly those which affect inter-Do-minion relationships, make it certain that his visit would be educative to his hosts in New Zealand as well as to Mr. Thomas himself. It would enable him to learn at first hand the Dominion’s attitude towards the Ottawa agreements that will come up for review next year. In personal discussion he might be able also to show more clearly than in official dispatches the aims and intentions of the Government of Great Britain, and thereby make it possible to find some way of accommodating both points of view when the time comes for a new agreement. Mr. Thomas was at one time Minister in charge of the relief of the unemployed, and it may be that he can afford the Dominion some guidance towards the reabsorption of the unemployed into ordinary channels of occupation. Ministers at Westminster have made it quite clear that trading relations with the Dominions must suffer considerable alteration next year, and that their first duty is to the producer at Home. The more of them that can learn at first hand the views and the necessities of the Dominions the better. It is fitting that the first visit proposed should be that of the Minister who represents his Government in Dominion affairs.