Bonds Of Commonwealth

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29383, 9 December 1960, Page 16

Bonds Of Commonwealth

Discussion of the ways in which the British Commonwealth is held together has become- a favourite intellectual exercise. In Christchurch, speakers at the New Zealand conference of the Royal Overseas League reviewed the development and prospects of the Commonwealth, and suggested reasons why New Zealanders and other Commonwealth peoples should be grateful for their constitutional heritage. At the present stage in world history it is salutary to remember how most former British colonial territories were spared confusion and anarchy in their progress towards ' independent nationhood. The headlong plunge into autonomy of countries such as the Belgian Congo and the Mali Federation has contrasted with the careful preparation of Britain’s dependent peoples for the assumption of more arduous responsibilities. Mistakes there have been; the name of Cyprus is enough to recall some of the difficulties and dangers through which the former British Empire has passed. Yet few persons seem ever to have questioned very seriously the indefinite viability of the Commonwealth, to which newly - autonomous countries apparently gain practically automatic rights of accession. One reason for the Commonwealth’s vigour is the lack of formal rules of membership. As constitutional changes have multiplied in almost infinite variety, so has the framework of the Commonwealth been adapted to cope with changing needs. Only decades ago it might have been unthinkable that from the Empire would evolve a voluntary association of free States among which the dark races would be predominant. As a political and constitu-

tional phenomenon the Commonwealth can scarcely have

an equal. Nobody doubts the value of the English language as a unifying factor among the Commonwealth peoples, nor the importance of ties with the British Crown, nor the effect of other sentimental but compelling influences. The usefulness of economic links is obvious. Less readily recognised but equally vita] is the common rule of law, that magnificent and living legacy of English jurisprudence through which is regulated the just, orderly, and decent conduct of millions of Commonwealth citizens. Mr J. J. Saunders, addressing the Royal Overseas League’s conference, did not exaggerate when he ascribed to the English lawyers much of the credit for founding the Commonwealth’s growth so surely and successfully. The “Round Table”, in its recent jubilee issue, had this to say about the future of the Commonwealth:

It is possible that the most potent influence of all in preserving the communion of culture in the Commonwealth will be exerted by the tradition of English jurisprudence. The English common law, which is a way of life .ranslated into a complex of rights and duties, has not only been transplanted in many directions oversea: its methods of thought have moulded the growth of juridical systems alien to itself, and informed them with the characteristic British reverence for the liberties of the subject. If only the Commonwealth can re-equip itself with a tribunal oi appeal, which can command respect as the organ of all the members equally and not, as the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has seemed to so many of the new States, a relic of imperial rule, the judges and counsel preservirig the brotherhood of the law throughout the Commonwealth may be the most potent force of all in keeping its ideas on human relationships developing on parallel lines.