“Commonwealth Countries Not Consulted”

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28128, 17 November 1956, Page 11

“Commonwealth Countries Not Consulted”

(Ree. 8 p.m.) LONDON, November 16.

Suggesting that there has been a lack of candour on the part of British Government spokesmen about the extent of consultation between Britain and the Commonwealth countries at the time when Britain was contemplating active intervention in the Middle East, Professor Nicholas Manscrgh, Professor of History ol the British Commonwealth at Cambridge, and an authoritv on Commonwealth affairs, asks in a letter to “The Times” “why the Commonwealth governments were not consulted in advance.” "The Colonia! Secretary. Mr LennoxBoyd maintains that there has been consultation all the time, but since all the Prime Ministers of overseas members of the Commonwealth have stated that they were not consulted before action was taken, this presumably refers to the periegi since the crisis only and is of no relevance in this context,” he wrote.

“Why were the Commonwealth Governments not consulted in advance? “The plea that there is not time hardly carries conviction with modern means of communication. “Not much time is, in fact, required, moreover, even if there was not time to consult Governments there surely was time to consult the High Commissioners. “Were the Commonwealth High Commissioners in London in fact consulted before the irrevocable decision was taken? “And if neither the Governments nor their representatives were consulted were they at least kept informed of the policies of the British Government in the Middle East? “After all, in the making of policy many eventualities have to be considered, and if the machinery of Commonwealth consultation had been used, one would have expected an exchange of views about possible courses of action. “Did it take place? The surprise evinced in overseas Commonwealth capitals. and Britain's precipitate action, would suggest not. Was there, then, a deliberate lack of candour on the part of the British Government towards its Commonwealth partners.

“I would like to see this damaging but widespread suspicion dispelled, but nothing so far said by Government spokesmen has served to dispel it.

“The system of Commonwealth consultation which has earned many welldeserved tributes in the past is the foundation of Commonwealth cooperation. “If it is to be disregarded by the senior partner in the Commonwealth, the prospects of its effective survival seems slight indeed.

“9oes the Government really regard the Commonwealth as of negligible importance, or did it—it is an equally disturbing thought—not realise that its action would divide it so deeply?

“If so, was the Government not enlightened by the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, the traditional exponent of Commonwealth views in the Cabinet and one, moreover, who recently returned from an extended tour of the Commonwealth? “Some of these questions surely deserve less evasive answers than they have so far received. “For those of use who believed, and still believe, that a multi-racial Commonwealth constituted, and still constitutes, a hopeful if difficult experiment in international co-operation the prejudicing of its future by the precipitate action taken in the Middle East is unforgiveable,” Professor Mansergh wrote.