Western Star WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. FRIDAY, MAY 23, 1930. EMPIRE DAY.

Western Star, 23 May 1930, Page 2

Western Star WALLACE COUNTY GAZETTE. FRIDAY, MAY 23, 1930. EMPIRE DAY.

Saturday, the 24th May, i s Empire .Day. The various parts of the Empire are united very strongly by the ties of brotherhood. We 'belong ,t 0 the same race, we speak the s ame language our unity is symbolised ,by the Crown, and we have all' the same ideals. And to-day there is a call to defend the Empire not upon the battlefield but in the ways of peace. The storms of" peace are often very violent, and call for courage, keen sense of duty, for fairness and uprightness in methods, and for unity among- ourselves. Following the war a new Empire was born. What has been called the New' British Empire dates from the Imperial Conference of 1926. At that Conference new conceptions of the relation between Great Britain and the Dominions which had long ''been present in the minds of statesmen were crystallized into a declaration/'of partnership and equality of status.' This new British Empire in which the political links are a voluntary desire for co-operation £nd the sharing in greater or less of common traditions and allegiance to the Crown, is a form of federation of peoples such as' has never rxisted previously in the world. That is its political aspect. Alongside of this there is growing up an Empire economic organization of great significance and immense potential importance for the future. The outward and visible signs of economic organization are to be found in the recent launching of the new momerhent in England for interImperial freetfade, trade preferences, the organization of the Imperial Economio Committee, its executive organ' the Empire Marketing Board, and such bodies as the Imperial Shipping Committee. Important and significant as the operations of this Economic Committee are. for the Empire it also has its great importance for the world as a whole. For, looked, at in proper perspective, the British Empire as much a s the League of Nations _ is makin? experiments in world organization, and helping to find solutions for all those complex questions of right ntvl privilege, and of conflict of interests, with vbirh. the world of to-dav bmtl°sj' A further reason for regarding the Empire a s of paramount p.

portanoe is that,we are living I<o-day not in a period' of decline and decadence but of change, a condition precedent to the beginning of a period of progress and improvement to which it is difficult to set limits. These guiding ideas of the Empire political and economic organization make up a new world-force capable of giving to the British dominions the political and economic foundation of a stable " ordered government, establishing freedom, allowing growth and development, and. securing peace. There is no reason to ieau the growth of national individuality in the constituent parts of the Empire and diversity in their methods of growthThese vigorous nationalisms combining in Empire organization axe not only a source of strengh now? and in the future but-are co-operating in the creation of an Empire sentiment, an Empire public opinion, and an Empire loyalty which is a valuable con- ' tribution to the life of' the ' world. So far as the Mother Country is concerned, we in New Zealand) have got to remember that it; is our best customer. At present Britain buys forty million pounds worth of our goods annually, and we piurchase from Britain about twenty-one millions pounds jworth a year. These figures disclose the fact that we can do a great deal more for the Homeland, and the disr parity between them is caused by American and foreign competition: This competition would not. be so great ■if the individual purchaser made it a point, to give preference to British goods when making purchases. Loyalty to the Empire and the ideal -for., which it stands alike dictate this:course. The economic welfare of the... Empire, of which so much is heard in the. papers, is the business of the individual. When he realises that his purchases have a direct bearing upon the question he is likely to becoine interested in matter s of Imperial concern, and Empire Day affords •an opportunity of explaining the position and of, exhorting tp practical action in the direction indicated.