“Appalling Ignorance Of Commonwealth In U.K.”

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29368, 22 November 1960, Page 14

“Appalling Ignorance Of Commonwealth In U.K.”

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

(Rec. 8 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 21. Querying whether the “Commonwealth idea” had ever been properly put over to the British people, the “Daily Mail,” in a special article to coincide with Commonwealth week says it is probably true that today there is much less knowledge about Commonwealth countries. Australians, Indians and Canadians living in Britain will tell you they find an appalling ignorance here, said the paper. Many British people still think of the Commonwealth as their Empire. More about Commonwealth affairs is now being taught in schools, but there is no follow-through for those of greater years. It is true that the press must take a large share of the blame, but the initial fault for such indifference lies mainly with successive British Governments.

The paper says the most important basic fact about the Commonwealth, which has not yet been properly grasped by the people of Britain, is that Britain’s place in this association

is as an equal partner ’with all other members: nothing more and nothing less.

K "We are no longer a great imperial Power ruling from Whitehall over all our possessions,” it says. “It is true the Queen is Head of the Commonwealth and that the whole Commonwealth has developed from this country, but the very spirit of the institution which we have inspired dictates that we shall take our place alongside and not above the other member countries.

“There are those in Britain who obstinately refuse to accept this situation. They see it only as a decline of a great imperial Power instead of the birth of something far more exciting. They think it a squandering away of empire and a sign of the weakness of post-war Britain. Nothing could be farther from the truth.”