KNOWLEDGE OF EMPIRE

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21533, 24 July 1935, Page 18

KNOWLEDGE OF EMPIRE

TO THE BDITOB 0* THE FH23S. Sir,-~I have read with the greatest interest the remarks you make about Lord Bledisloe's comment upon the inadequate nature of the knowledge about different parts of the Empire possessed by British Cabinet Ministers. I have noticed also the two suggestions

you make for improvement. Might I also be allowed to make a third, and that is that every Dominion Governor, upon his return to England after having served a term of office, should be appointed to a seat in the British Cabinet, which he would hold until the expiry of his successor's term of office as the next Governor. To be of real value, such appointees would have nothing to do with domestic affairs in Great Britain, but would only attend the Cabinet meetings when Empire affairs were being discussed. In such circumstances the meetings of the British Cabinet would be much better informed when discussing the affairs of the Empire in general, and our own Dominion in particular. It does not take much imagination to realise that a forceful personality with a good thump on the table, may be able at the present time to carry his own very decided oninions, because his confreres are ill-informed and over-burdened with their other anxieties. This is a suggestion which our own Government could very well make to the English Government.--Yours, etc., IVANHOE. July 22, 1935.