ECONOMIC UNION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 296, 14 December 1931, Page 5

ECONOMIC UNION.

Day of Centralised Empire is Gone. NEW ERA BEGINNING. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. HALIFAX, December 12. “ The day of a centralised Empire is past. We no longer live in a political Empire, we must now see to it that our ability and resources are thrown into the enterprise of building and strengthening economic union.” In these words the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr R. B. Bennett, summarised the impressions of his trip to England, on his arrival here to-day. Mr Bennett declared that the Mother Country was meeting her problems with high courr and confidence. The coming Economic Conference at Ottawa would probably be the most important event of its kind ever held within the British Commonwealth. The statement made by Mr J. 11. Thomas, Secretary for the Dominions, in which he told the House of Commons that Britain was committed to the idea of a wheat quota, was distinctly gratifying, said Mr Bennett. “ It marks the adoption of reciprocal trade agreements within the Empire. The people of Britain are looking forward with great interest to the Imperial Conference. The date cannot be fixed, of course, until after the Australian elections. With the adoption of the Statute of Westminster, the old political Empire disappears, and everywhere I went in the Old Land I found the people looking forward to the Conference in the belief that we will lay at Ottawa the foundations of a new economic Empire.”