BRITAIN'S FOREIGN POLICY.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17633, 9 December 1922, Page 18

BRITAIN'S FOREIGN POLICY.

THE DOMINIONS' STATUS. t (from; ot;k own cobbespontjext.) LONDON, October 19. The Natioual Review has long regretted that the Overseas Dominions play so small a part in. shaping British Foreign Policy, which concerns them no less than the people of the Mother Country. "When we are at peace," says the Review, "they are at peace. When we go to war, they go to war and must go to war, whether they like it or no. When British interests are threatened, Canada, South Africa, j Australia, and New Zealand are thre.it- | ened- When the times are critical and | Downing street needs moral-and other assistance, British statesmen claim the i support of the Dominion Governments. Kut how much arc these consulted between whiles? How far are Dominion in- | tcrests considered in Downing street? lo wJiat extent are Dominion statesmen kept m touch with the views and policy of the so-called 'lmperial Government IJ'1 J ' We believe that a true answer to these questions would reveal a. lamentable state of things, and ono equally detrimental to Home and Colonial interests. "In a word, there is no Imperial policy whatsoever. The Coalition despot gives little thought to any Dominion interest, nor is any Dominion statesman effectively consulted or even allowed to know what is going on. The classic instance was the exclusion of Mr Hughes from the deplorablo discussions at Versailles that preceded the armistice arrangements in the autumn of 1918, when virtually 'the pass was sold.' Wake TJp! "It would not bo fair to hold the British Government exclusively icspousiblo for tho detachment of the Dominions towards tho more important of tho world's affairs. But indubitably Wwning street has done nothing to discourage it. On the contrary, it has encouraged it so that tho 'Home Government' might enjoy a free hand. This system would work fairly well, given tho requisite statesmanship in London, but at a time when the statesmen lias been .replaced by tho politician—who, moreover glories in being a politician and desoises Statecraft —it works damnably. Even the most distant Dominions «ro dimly conscious that something is wrong. We go so far as to say that tho British Empire cannot carry on indefinitely on tho present plan, which involves Canadians, Australians, «nd New Zealanders, as well as ourselves, | in one mesa after another. However j much Colonials may shut their eyes and imagine that the Mother Country alone is 'put in the soup' by Coalition in- j optitude, something suddenly happens to shock their equanimity'and to disturh their provincialism, .as it has ' previously upset tho insularity of that excessive number of Englishmen who fondly and foolishly believe that 'Foreigu Affairs' do not concern thorn and can be safoly left to 'the Government,' which, as we all must soo, is destitute of any Foreign Policy and lives from hand, to mouth, trusting to 'improvisation' to dispose of anything that may turn -up. Tf we bo allowed to say so the Colonial Press, notably, the heading 'mugwumpish' journals of Australia, which still admire Lloyd-Georgism and denounce his home critics who are fighting for national and Imperial in- j terests and the decencies of public lifef —will he compelled to revise their present self-complacont attitude. Thej must wake up and educate their readers to tho necessity of Australia playing her part in Imperial Peace Politics a» in Imperial War Politics. They must force their politicians, in and out of office, to take' a sustained and serious interest in International Affairs, which are their affairs no less-than ours, and because the time has long gone by when they could safely allow those world problems to remain the monopoly of stay-at-home statesmen, who know little or nothing of the British Empire, for which some of them care less. There is a certain type of 'pathetic contentment' which is equally dangerous to those who enjoy the benefit of -it as to those who suffer from it. VVe couhi do with a strong stiff dose of robust Colonial common 6ense in Downing Street, such as we had not ha«i since Mr Hughes's stimulating visit in 1916"The Greek debacle and the menace of a combination of Kemahsm, Bolshevism, and Germanism, has once more, after.a considerable interval, brought the Dominions into the foreground of international politics. Inter-Imperial communication is nowadays so imperfect—the British Press has become so •negligent of its duties towards the Overseas Empire—that it is far from easy for anyone in London to form any conception as to the opinion in Canada, South Africa, Australia, or New Zealand. . . . The Dominions are clearly bewildered by the bolt from the blue that h«s/ r -"™ nr on them, and though the Coalition Cabinet officially express D..'«.....«i;w-n 'with the support accorded to it, not only in this country, in the Dominions,' we cannot uetect much evidence of enthusiasm in the interrogative attitude of the latter, who don't know where they are any more than we do, or J;han do his Majesty's .Ministers, who within a few days chopped and changed several times Needless to say, New Zealand is, as always, splendid in its zeal to support the common Imperial cause, which we obseiwe. no one in New Zealand indicates any anx;Vv to rechnsten 'tnt- cause of the Commonwealth of Nations known as tlto British Empire' after the manner of the Coalition Not a i&v Colonials mnoeentlj imagined tna: the League of Nations had been created to c*<pe with such a situation as now confronts us, but its more ambitious members were too preoccupied in preparing for a millennium of disarmament to concern themselves with anything so commonplace as actual warfare, such as now threatens to spread westwards from Asia Minor."