FOREIGN POLICY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 31, 6 February 1925, Page 5

FOREIGN POLICY.

ESSENCE OF THE EMPIRE. | I COMMON GROUND NEEDED. CHANGES IN THE STATUS. IBy Cahle.—Press Association.—Copyright.) i (Received 1.:.0 p.m.) LONDON, February •",. The "Times" is publishing a series of special articles dealing with the problem i of hnxv to make tho Empire self-gov-erning nations agree upon and support i a common foreign policy-, upon which, the i writer urges, is involved the Empire's existence. He says that unle.-s they can agree it is only a question of time when thex' xvill separate into independent States. He claims that the question is becoming more and more insistent, pointing out the failures of the recent attempts to settle a common policy, indicating n • deep-seated difficulty which xvill become exceedingly dangerous unless solved in • the near future. The writer declares that the actual danger of xvar is ever present, not only in Europe but on the Russio-India frontier, in the Far Fast, and the Pacific Ocean, and sooner or later Germany xvill refuse to lie subjected to military impotence. Russia is looking eastxvard to India, China, and .Inpan in the hone of organising the Orient against the West. If Japan or any other nation begins a naval armaments race, where will it end? Replying to tho-ie who point out hoxv the xvbole Empire rallied to the Imperial standard during the crisis, the xvriter says the situation xvithin the Kmpire is entirely- changed since 1014, and the British public has scarcely begun to understand this change. The nexv international status acquired by the Dominion-s after the war made all the difference. The Lausanne affair and the 10-24 Reparations Conference prove that the Dominions xvill insist on their nexv status. Tbev have no special confidence in Doxx-ning Street's omniscience, beenusc the Foreign Office outlook is insular, and it fails to understand the overseas interests and view-points. The article then dwells upon the present inadequacy of inter-Imperial consultation. Cable dispatches are inadequate; constant personal contact is the very essence of successful diplomatic intercourse. Without that contact business would never get done, yet in the sphere of foreign policy the personal element was almost entirely missing from the Imperial machinery. Both Britain and the Dominions are letting things slide. Again, matters are even worse in txvo respects than many years ago, b.-eause the Governors-General noxxact politically merely ns the. King does at Home, and the high commissioners devote their main attention to commerce. IN TOUCH WITH REALITIES. Anyhow almost nil inter-Imperial business goes through the Colonial Office. The Dominions, more especially Canada and Africa, deliberately avoided contact with the international world, because they believe the easiest way to avoid war is to avoid foreign entanglements. They fear that their representatives would be no match for British diplomatists, but these world problems must be solved collectively. You cannot run a great co-operative concern in blinkers. Among his practical suggestions tho writer says: Firstly, inter-Imperial consultation upon foreign affairs must be done through the Foreign Office, secondly the relations of the British Foreign Secretary xvith Dominion Premiers should bo conducted by methods analogous to those employed in ordinary international diplomacy. An Imperial Secretariat, like Mr. Bruce suggests, xvould be either an unnecessary stair of clerks, or would be a challenge to Dominion independence. There xvas nothing the Dominion Premiers feared more than that. The High Commissioners act as a sort of absentee Foreign Minister, speaking like plenipotentiaries. The British Foreign .Minister should therefore treat the High Commissioners as he treats the Allied Ambassador, namely as a personal intermediary xvith the Dominion Cabinets with the right of a daily private interview, but naturally cm a more friendly and intimate footing. Thirdly the Governors-General and High Commissioners should be chosen I for diplomatic qualifications, and their I functions remodelled. Britain should be diplomatically represented in every Dominion capital. Fourthly the Dominions should obtain access to direct information concerning I the international situation. They must have direct touch wiih the realities of the outside world and be able to get their own information, or at least cheek it. This admittedly is a difficult problem, but much could be done in either of txvo ways. The Dominions could make fuller use of Britain's world wide diplomatic serx'ice, or begin building up their oxvn staff of foreign exper+= by dove-tailing them into the British staffs in foreign capitals.— ("Times.")