Economic Future of the Empire In his speech to the
Manchester Chamber of Commerce Mr. Malcolm MacDonald expressed a statesmanlike view of the future of the Dominions. We must not think of them, he suggested, as expanding simply through their pastoral and agricultural industries ; their industrial develop- ment, properly and wisely guided, will not be contrary to our interests. They are destined in the future to be great sovereign nations with populations more proportionate to their territory ; and this presupposes great industrial as well as agricultural activity. Such enterprise would not deprive us of markets for our exports, though it would undoubtedly impose upon our industrialists the duty of getting together with industrialists in the Dominions to work out schemes of complementary production. Mr. MacDonald's view is the long one. His conception is that of a British Empire consisting of six first-class Powers. Economic planning should go on side by side with the growth of the vast commonwealth of nations which he foresees.
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