Diplomatic Relations of the Empire.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18241, 27 November 1924, Page 8

Diplomatic Relations of the Empire.

In one of our cable messages to-day Sir George Foster, of Canada, is made to say in an address to the Colonial Institute in London that the Dominions would make a mistake if they asserted equality of nationhood too strongly. "Britain," ho said, "would continue to "be the dominant partner until the "Dominions approximated her in popu-

"lation and in the burden of defence": and he added that while Canada had taken a prominent part in demanding separate representation, she had done nothing yet to avail herself of it. Sir George's opinion can hardly be that the junior partners should not be consulted, but that having been consulted they should leave the actual direction of affairs to the head of the firm. There is no longer any question about consultation, the only doubt being how best to provide for it. It will be recalled that Mr Baldwin, only a few days ago, took the unusual 3tep of conferring with the High Commissioners, and although that is not in itself sufficient, it is a beginning. Indeed, it is suggested in a second cable to-day that the "High Commis"sioners' function seems destined to "become far wider," that they will be Ambassadors as well as consultants, and that it "may be found desirable to associate them with the Foreign instead "of with the Colonial Office." That opinion, Which is offered by the "Daily "Chronicle," is in part at least a defence of Mr Lloyd George against the attack of Lord Selborne in the first message, and it carries us a little farther in practice than any Government yet has proposed to go. B\jt it undoubtedly has a. largo measure of support, and if there were any means of securing that the Dominions could always send men to London of ambassadorial calibre, it would solve our greatest constitutional problem. Bat the question of arranging for real and continuous consultation on our foreign policy must not be confused with the conduct of foreign policy in diplomatic crises. Sir George Foster i 3 quite right in urging that the Domnions ought to think twiee before doing anything that would make it more difficult for Britain to speak to other Powers with a single voice. The Dominions hare no need to assert themselves in directions in which their interests are not threatened; and if they do insist on a formal equality which their present situation does not require, their conduct may easily have such consequences as Lord Selborne mentions in his picturesque reference to the Egyptian trouble. A Canadian paper said recently, in a plea for "rigging "out" the Dominions suitably for their new international occasions and duties, that "we cannot turn up at a gathering '' of grown-ups in short pants and cx"pect the treatment that is given "adults." But we have no need to be present at some of these gatherings, and the. question of a "suitable rig" will not arise within the family itself. It is sufficient in tho meantime that wc meet the other members of the family in such garments as our 'age makes appropriate.