EMPIRE UNITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 152, 30 June 1927, Page 7

EMPIRE UNITY.

3NE BIG PARLIAMENT.

Inter-Imperial Relations Discussed. DOMINIONS OFFICE VOTE. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received 12.30 p.m.) LONDON", June 29. In the committee ■ stage of the Finance Bill on the Dominions Office vote Mr. Lan Macpherson (Lib., Inverness) referred to inter-Imperial relations, and said it would be a signal of failure to attempt to set up a supercouncil, sitting in judgment on the Empire's Parliaments. The problem was how to continue reconciling the autonomy of facts with unity of the whole.

Improved methods of consultation had to bo devised. One proposal was the creation of a permanent secretariat, another a wider status for High Commissioners, but his party suggested' a sort of Empire Parliamentary all-party conference, meeting once a year on the lines of the preliminary commission before the Disarmament Conference.

Sir John Marriott (Con., York) asked if there had been any change in Imperial relations and if so, what was its nature. Had Britain, he asked, abandoned anything and, if so, on whose authority 1 He doubted whether it was wise to let loose a metaphysician upon the Empire's constitution. He was afraid it was as dangerous as Athanasius in theology. Mr. Tom Johnson (Lab., Dundee) said a preliminary Parliamentary conference might easily unconsciously develop in the British way into the dream all held of an Imperial Parliament dealing in Imperial concerns aud leaving the constituent Parliaments home rule in their own affairs. Major Hugh O'Neill (Con., Antrim) hoped Sir John Marriott's questions would not be answered. He felt that the inter-Imperial relations report was a great State document on the whole, constructive and not destructive, which would result in the betterment and not worsening of relations. Full and Free Consultation. Mr. L. S. Amerv, Dominions Secretary, replying, said that the unit}' of the Empire would be immensely strengthened by personal contact, but until airships shortened communications, we would have to be a content with conferences every two or three years.

The Government was ready to consult Dominion representatives in the fullest and freest manner, and not to withhold information of any kind from them. If there was any general wish for a permanent secretariat there would be no difficulty in giving effect to it, meanwhile the machinery for direct communication and consultation was improving all the time.

The chango in the relationships of the Dominions was one of the most profound and remarkable that had . ever taken place. It had occurred step by step, every Imperial Conference during the past 40 years marking an advance.

Absolute Equality. Mr. Amery, continuing, said that Sir. Baldwin, the Prime Minister, hoped to renew on the spot the personal contact he had established during the late Imperial Conference with the Government of Canada in the course of the next few weeks.

Mr. Amery said that he himself hoped to take advantage within a few months of the opportunity of renewing contact with the various Dominions and dealing with the outstanding problems between the British Government and the Parliaments •of the Dominions, which could better be settled across a table than by telegraphic communication.

By laying down the principle of absolute'equality between the Dominions and their unity under a common Crown, the Imperial 'Conference marked a great turning point in the Empire.