The Press Wednesday, August 10, 1932. Dominion Representation in London.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20621, 10 August 1932, Page 10

The Press Wednesday, August 10, 1932. Dominion Representation in London.

The Prime Minister,- in the course of a statement printed in The Press yesterday, hinted that New Zealand' might shortly be represented in London by a Resident Minister instead of a High Commissioner. The idea that the unity of the Empire would be strengthened if each Dominion had in London a Resident Minister in direct communication with the British Government is as old as that of Imperial federation. Canada was the first of the colonies to urge i* strongly, and the first true Resident Minister was Sir Charles Tupper, who from 1888-92 held the office of High Commissioner in London, while at the same time he retained a seat in the Canadian Cabinet. In a memorandum presented by a visiting delegation of the Canadian Ministry to the British Government in ISB9 it was set out that "the Canadian Government attach " great importance to this matter [the " appointment of a Resident Minister]", " and hope that her Majesty's Govern- " ment will see no insuperable difficulty "in giving the Canadian representa"tivea a diplomatic position at the « Court of St. James." But the other Dominions did not give serious consideration to the question until the Imperial Conference of 1911, when the appointment of representatives on the Committee of Imperial Defence was discussed. It was unanimously agreed that the Dominions should be represented by Ministers responsible to their own Parliaments. The Colonial Office then issued invitations to the Dominions to appoint Resident Ministers; but it was not until the War that full advantage was taken of the offer. Discussing the Imperial War Cabinet, Sir Robert Borden, the Canadian representative, said in 1917:

We meet there on terms of equality under the presidency of the F rat Minister of the United Kingdom. . . Ministers from six nations sit around the council board, all of them responsible to their respective Parliaments and to the people of the countries which they represent. . . For many years the' thought of statesmen and students in every part of the Empire ba<s centred around tbe ane-Mon o* future constitutional relations; it may be thnt now, as in the past, the necessity imposed by great events has given the answer.

The prophecy was not fulfilled; for although the Imperial War Cabinst recommended the appointment of Resident Ministers to provide machinery for political consultation between Imperial Conferences, none of the Dominions acted in the matter. In the absence of fuller information, it is difficult to understand what material benefits are expected of the project. A Resident Minister would be a member of the Cabinet of his Dominion in theory only. In practice he would have to be guided and instructed by that Cabinet just as a High Commissioner would. Nor is it entirely to the good that the political affiliations of a Dominion's representation in London should be further emphasised. In any case, the usefulness of the Dominion representatives in London depends more upon the readiness of the British Government to confide in them than upon the name given them by their own Governments.