I should like to express my sympathy with the hon. Gentleman who has raised this matter, and to assure him, and the hon. Gentleman on the Front Bench, that he has the full support of people of all parties in this House. Many of us have been talking on similar lines in this House, and it is my own view, and the view of others, that the answer of the Prime Minister today was most disappointing. We are convinced that in the difficulties of this present peace-time, just as in the difficulties at the height of the war, we have to act as one nation. Since the war the leadership we used to maintain, and the working together of forces, seem to have fallen into the background. If there is one task of this Parliament it is to try to pull those strings together, so that we can work together as one nation, and examine our common resources; and where we can produce greater wealth with greater ease in one part of the Commonwealth we should carry on with that task with the least delay.

We hear stories of the last month being the finest on record for exports of motor cars, and the newspapers have stories about "bursting into the American markets." But if we do burst into those markets with a few extra percentages, the Americans are not going to allow us to remain there. They will act with tariffs and that sort of thing if we have undue success. Most of us know that we shall not have that success; we cannot beat the Americans at their own game. If we are to be successful it will be in our own markets. If we examine the map of Africa and see what the Germans did in the short time they were there, and compare the mileage of railway lines they constructed with the mileage in Rhodesia just across the border, we can see that there is a colossal difference. The Germans seemed to know what they were after. If we ever build that line across Bechuanaland we shall owe a lot to what the Germans did.

The hon. Member referred to an overseas broadcast last week. I would go with him in urging the Government to embark at once on some plan of emigration for the Colonial Empire. But do not let us go with a plan similar to that worked out after the last war, which was attacked this afternoon because people came back after a short time, having been told they were not wanted. We have grown up since then. We can plan the thing properly. Do not let us send just the artisans. Let us send them with their wives and families, their fathers and mothers; let us unify our social services with those in the Empire. In that way we shall get a collection of planned communities. A great deal of the food we now have to import would then not have to leave those shores.

It has been suggested that there should be a great Council of Empire—perhaps in London, perhaps elsewhere. That idea has been turned down. I would suggest that my hon. Friend goes back to the Government and tries to persuade them to set up an Economic Council, which should embark on a plan not only for our own country, but for the Empire, plan its resources, the people who are going to work for them, and the people who are going to consume them. I hope we are going to get some reply from the Under-Secretary which will hold out more hope for the development of the Commonwealth than we received from the Prime Minister this afternoon.