FOUR BIG DANGERS

Taranaki Daily News, 11 April 1935, Page 2

FOUR BIG DANGERS

TROUBLES OF THE WORLD GREAT BRITAIN’S POSITION. SIR HUGH DENISON’S APPEAL. A striking appeal for the close cooperation of the Empire was made by Sir Hugh Denison, president of the New South Wales branch of the Royal Empire Society, at a luncheon given by the Auckland committee. After describing his recent tour in England and abroad, vrhen he had come in contact with all sections or society and discussed subjects of Empire with them, Sir Hugh said there was rather a considerable amount of unrest, not only in the Empire, but in the countries surrounding it. One had to look only at Europe to see that there had been no restfulness since the end of the Great War. To-day there were revolutionary feelings that politicians did not seem able to overcome. Hundreds and thousands of people were going without bread, and that was leading to the growth of Communism, which threatened the people of the world to-day. “Britain is the only Power that has any genuine stability, especially in connection with finance,” said Sir Hugh. “While I was Commissioner-General for Australia in America some years ago I learnt that America could not understand why Britain had fallen behind in the advancement of industrial work. Americans thought the Empire was practically decrepit, but the Americans had had a rude awakening in the past few years. Britain’s great traditions and financial stability, and her level-headedness, stood to-day as a model for the other countries of the world.

“IRELAND A PLAGUE SPOT.” “While our British democracy still remains as the paramount form of Government, there are, in some places, rather ominous signs,” continued Sir Hugh. “Ireland is a plague spot. South Africa ha.<? so far gone behind the traditions of the Empire as to— immediately after the Ottawa Conference —enter into private trade contracts with Germany, and despite the difficulty of British shipping, she has negotiated with Italy to ship her produce.” One South African Minister had said that in any future war South Africa did not propose to take any part in Imperial defence, That, Sir Hugh could not understand. He did not know whether South Africa expected New Zealand and Australia to go forth and defend her. Canada, too, was in a curious position. There had been an inclination on the part of Canadian politicians to get nearer to the United States of America. The only two provinces in Canada that were still loyal to the best Empire traditions were Ottawa and British Columbia, and those two provinces contained twofifths of the population of Canada. One Canadian Minister who admitted that he was the son of a rebel had advocated closer relations with the United States, and Canada, loyal as she was, was drifting away through influence. Difficulties in India were also touched on. “WHAT IS TO HAPPEN?” “Four danger points are developing in the Empire to-day and they make thoughtful people wonder what is going to happen to this wonderful Empire of ours,” declared the speaker. “I do not desire to put out a note of tragedy. I visited Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, and I was impressed by the almost loving feeling of those countries towards Great Britain. Formerly they had sympathies towards Germany, but those feelings have changed entirely in the past few years. They had no axe to grind, and they have almost transferred their allegiance, especially economically, to Great Britain, the leader of civilisation in the Western World.” Foreign affairs were next touched on by Sir Hugh Denison. He spoke of Hitler, and said that Germany did not mean to withdraw the steps she had taken in recent months. When a nation proposed to arm herself to the limits, that was not done for peace purposes. There was Japan’s curious action in withdrawing from the League of Nations. Up to 1870 Japan had been a backward country that had done practically no trade with the Western nations. In those days her population had been 30,000,000, but in the next 40 years she had doubled her population, and she was increasing to-day at the rate of 1,000,000 a year. JAPAN’S DIFFICULTY.

Japan owned three small islands, smaller than Great Britain and Ireland. She was unable to feed herself with this huge population and her national faith in the sanctity of the family would not allow birth control. Japan’s statesmen were faced with the position that they must find a way out. Other countries were closed to Japanese. The Spokesman of the Japanese Foreign Office had made Japan’s policy perfectly plain. He had said that Japan had opened up Manchukuo because they needed it. Japan had decided to become an industrial nation and in the past seven years she had become a menace to the other manufacturing countries of the world. “Japan does not want to quarrel with Great Britain, but if she goes on increasing in population she will have to move, and her obvious destiny will be south,” declared Sir Hugh. “What can we do? Now more than ever before it is necessary for us to stand together and keep this great Empire as self-contained and as strong as possible. Go out and preach the gospel that the strength of the Empire can only be maintained by close co-operation.” It was a very proud thing to be able to say, “I am a Britisher,” for to-day Great Britain stood as the one nation, the one race that had kept its head and done its best to promote peace in the world. After describing the objects of the Royal Empire Society, Sir Hugh Denison said that if it was decided in Auckland to get some suitable place where patriotic societies could meet, he would be very happy indeed to contribute quite a material deviation towards it.