ALL-BRITISH AUSTRALIA

Waikato Times, Volume 101, Issue 16896, 9 September 1926, Page 5

ALL-BRITISH AUSTRALIA

NECESARY FOR PEACE. PREMIER ON THE DIFFICULTIES, Mr Stanley Baldwin, the British Prime Minister, was the principal speaker at the annual meeting of the Empire Parliamentary Association held at Westminster Hall, London, under the chairmanship of ihe Speaker of the House of Commons, Mr J. H. Whitley.

Moving a resolution expressing thanks to the members of the association in the Australian Commonwealth Parliament for their invitation to the United Kingdom members to send a delegation to visit Australia in September Mr Baldwin said that the delegation which would go to Australia would be a very representative one, and he hoped it would do an immense amount of good. It had always seemed to him that there was a real difficulty in understanding the problems that had to he faced, even by men of our own blood who lived on the other side of Ihe world. They were so alike and yet different The fact that they were of one stock sometimes made us imagine that wc understood, intuitively, their difficulties and problems, when as a matter of fact, we probably did not. It was only by close personal contact that he could understand and sympathise with them. By far the most important thing for Australia, the peace of the world, the future of the world, and our own race, is that there should grow up there a community of purc-brcd stock from the British Isles.

There have been difficulties about that, and I cannot, help thinking a visit of this kind may perhaps do a good deal to remove and solve those difficulties. Wc may get to understand ours. Australia, as befits a young country, has naturally made a great many experiments in her social legislation. I think there wc may he able to learn a good deal, to see what, problems they have attempted to solve, how far Ihey have been successful, and where they have failed. It is a curious thing that in a new’ country like Australia is—one that was in ils settlement predominantly agricultural —wc should see exactly the same tendency as in the Old World for the towns to grow at the expense of the country. Drift to tho Towns. It is very singular that in that vast continent, with all its latent capacity of production, wc should see a drift of population into Sydney and Melbourne, where they must have a very large proportion of the population of the whole continent. It is one of the essential problems with which wc at home are also faced. The problem is: What can wc do to prevent that aggregation of people into the towns which makes it so infinitely more difficult to maintain that standard of life which wc would like to see people enjoy, and environment in which they can develop themselves the best, The Prime Minister continued: Mr Baldwin expressed the hope that it would he possible for a visit to be paid to this country by representatives of other Parliaments. There had not been one for some time, and it was desirable that, such a visit should he arranged in the course of the next, two or three years. The. resolution, which was seconded by Mr .1. 11. Thomas, M.P., was carried unanimously.