Oct. 22.
To anyone who has travelled at all within the British Empire it almost seems as if the great majority of the people who) regard themselves as citizens of this vast commonwealth of nations ave far from realizing the value of the heritage which is theirs, Most of them, of course, ook upon it as something to be! proud of, though they must be! careful to hide their pride from peoples not so fortunate as they are. It is something, of course, to! be enthusiastic over in their more expansive moments, and now and -again they may indulge in rhapsodies on its gallant founders and pioneers. But a great many of these fortunate citizens never get beyond this stage. They fail to see that the Empire can be of great practical value to its inhabitants, that it can be of immense service to them in their daily lives. We cannot live all the time on sentiment, and the Empire is something more than a mere sentimentalism. There is what one might term a material side to it, and though the word materialism" has nowadays somewhat evil associations, there is nevertheless a good side to it. The British Empire can be of immense use in providing for the more mundane requirements of its citizens latter are too as regions which possess the greatest potential wealth of any part of the globe. Likewise they often fail to realize that the Empire is or rather could be made a self-contained commonwealth. other words, practically every' article or product necessary for the complex needs of our modern civilization is to be found in the lands over which floats the Union Jack, and there is no reason whatever why almost the whole of the requirements of every inhabitant of the Empire should not be purchased from within its bounds.
Of course in order to bring about this state of affairs, industry, production and marketry would have to be regulated on a sefentific basis, or to put it! plainer, on a common-sense basis. At present this is certainly not the case. We find countries with immense possibilities in the way of agriculture striving to set up manufactures, and finding they cin only bolster up these industries by erecting a high tant wall. What is necessary is to arrange matters in such a- way, that every part of the Empire engaged in the sort' of" work! which by its supply of natural! resources, its environment or the aptitude and training of its people it is most capable of performing. Of course such metfod of adding to the efficiency and usefulness of the Empire appears at first sight quite out of the question. It to be altogether too ig a job to organize the British Dominions on such lines. Yet it could be done by the application of farsighted statesmanship to the needs and opportunities of the various units of the Empire. Moreover it is a task which sooner or later will have to be tackled if the Empire is to serve its peoples to the best advantage. The spirit of inter-Dominion trade competition must as far a8 possible be eliminated and the law-makers of the Mother Country and the daughter lands must come to realize that by serving: the Empire in the best possible way they are doing the best: possible services for the people' they represent.
To come to practical politics, what we need is such adjustment, of tariffs or customs rates among the countries comprising the Empire as to obtain the highest efficiency. Whether we have) what is somewhat loosely termed Empire Preference, or whether! Empire Free Trade comes into) being is not of great moment. The principle holds good in any case, that commercially, as well a3 in other ways the different portions of the Empire ought to be doing their best to help one another and to help along the! Empire itself. By so doing they will be laying the foundations for a future success and prosperity far beyond anything that can accrue under the present slipshod methods of trade and production. Of course, there will be those who will do their best to prevent such a state of affairs coming to) pass. There are vested interests selfishly working for their own immediate gain and careless of what happens to others. There are also those who either for sake of their own financial profit) or for the sake of adding to their power would be only too pleased to see the collapse of that Empire) which in spite of its mistakes and failures done so much for] the freedom and happiness of manking But in the light of what has just been achieved at! Locarno for the peace of Europe, much should be possible in the way of adding to the safeguards which seem to have redounded so much to Mr. Chamberlain's especial credit, in that greater commercial empire affiliation, which must mean a vast and increasing factor for peace.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.