ILL-BALANCED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19983, 28 October 1927, Page 7

ILL-BALANCED

THE BRITISH EMPIRE Distribution of Population Difficult A BIG ECONOMIC PROBLEM (By Telegraph—Per Press Amu.—Copyrisbt.) (A. A MELBOURNE, Oct. 27. Replying to the toast of his health at the civic reception. Mr L. S. Amery said that to him the past week had been of immense interest and varied experience. It had shown him the wonderful possibilities, also some of the difficulties, of a great country, the recollection of which would help him greatly in consideration of the many Imperial problems which he had eome to study. Referring to the development of the Empire Mr Amery said: 44 Ours is an Empire which lives by the freedom of the seas. It is only under the shelter of a navy strong enough to maintain us that we can develop cxrr free institutions and preserve the standards which we have set up, instead of being forced to organise ourselves in a narrow militarist spirit from the point of view of danger. The problem will not be solved by arms and foreign policy. “The solution will come because we are a strong economic Power, with an effective distribution of our population. At present from the point of view of defence, our population is singularly illdistributed. It is mostly concentrated upon a little island. If the present tribution is faulty from the point of view of defence, it is also faulty from that of the development of our economic resources. “From the social point of view also, we are ill-balanced. Britain cannot solve its unemployment problem by creating another bare. Distribution can come about only by the skilful transfer of the population, the creation of new industries, and above all by bringing out those who are going to succ-eed and not fail. * 1 Underlying all this is the problem of economic development by the reciprocal process. We must stimulate and strengthen our development. Let us aim at the conservation of our economic energy, as well as the combination of our economic forces. The policy of Britain is very different from what it 20 years ago. The war was to us a •e\ elation. It had a great effect upon jur economic problem. It threw a new ight upon the Empire partnership, givng it a significance and reality, which jre never before felt.” Mr Amery later left for Tasmania.