EMPIRE PRINCIPLES.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18918, 5 February 1927, Page 15

EMPIRE PRINCIPLES.

MR M'KENZIE KING'S SPEECH. (BT CABLE— MESS ASSOCIATION—COPTEIGHT.) (AUSTRALIA* AXD *.Z. CABLI ASSOCIATION.) (Received February 4th, 8.25 p.m.) OTTAWA, February 3.

In a speech at Toronto the Premier, Mr MacKcnzie King, said: "While it is not in one sense true that in respect of the constitutional position of Great Britain and the Dominions the Imperial Conference established nothing new, it is equally true that it has given a wholly new force and meaning to an established position. That position now carried with it the imprimatur of an Imperial Conference, voicing in one note of common agreement tho opinion of all parts of the British Empire as to the basic principles on which the Empire rested." The Premier said he would reserve for discussion in Parliament what ho had to say on the subject of defence. STATUS OF DOMINIONS. (AUBTBAUAK AND S.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Heceived February 4th, 9.30 p.m.) OTTAWA, February 3. Referring to tho Imperial Conference, Mr Mackenzie King said: "We belioved before we left tor England that Canada was a self-governing community within the British Empire, enjoying complete autonomy and in no way subordinate to other parts of the Empire with respect to he r own domestic and external affairs, and that in these matters tho Parliament of Canada was supremo We had, therefore, no question to raise on tins score, but other parts of the Empire more recently organised as self-governing Dominions than ourselves, may not nave felt equally secure in the matter of their status.''