EMPIRE DEFENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 48, 26 February 1937, Page 6

EMPIRE DEFENCE.

■Re the neutrality of tho Dominions when England is at war: The profound dicta of, the Morgan* and Keith*, based, as they are, on hair-splitting interpretations of the Statute of Westminster, won't out any iee when the trouble starts. Take, for example, Canada: any attempt by a Government to commit that country to a repeat performance of the 1914-18 military show would inevitably precipitate civil war. Because, very clearly, about four million French-Canadians are to-day more determined than in 1914 that their country must stay out of European wars. And this attitude finds wide support in the cosmopolitan Western province*: altogether, too large a proportion the total population for any Government to attempt to dragoon into a foreign war. South Africa, a* one of lier Cabinet Minister* pointed out recently, would find herself in a similar ugly predicament should war break out. It would seem that there is an ostrich-like quality about the comfortable, cut-and-dried theories of certain constitutional "experts," whose patriotic imperialism obviously often compels them to ignore facts —especially inconvenient facts. It is safe betting that Imperial Conference defence discussions will he mostly secret —not for military reasons but family reasons. <!.B.