The Press SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27,1965. Why Commonwealth M.P.s Confer

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30919, 27 November 1965, Page 14

The Press SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27,1965. Why Commonwealth M.P.s Confer

Events in Rhodesia will be discussed at the first business sessions of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s conference which will open in Wellington on Tuesday. The conference will assume more than its usual importance as a means of exchanging general thoughts on matters of interest to members of Commonwealth Parliaments. It will be a forum in which many representatives of the people of the 21 Commonwealth nations will discuss an issue crucial to the future of the Commonwealth. The conference has no standing as a legislative body; nor is it a meeting which can make policies. Delegates are unlikely to add much to the points of view which have already been canvassed round the world. Yet the pre-eminence given to Rhodesia as the subject for the first business sessions illustrates how these conferences provide private members of Parliaments with opportunities to get a deeper appreciation of each other’s attitudes and to promote a more personal awareness of each other’s feelings and ideas on current issues.

This kind of awareness is valuable in a world in which parliamentarians cannot confine their interests and experience to the purely local affairs of their own electors. Ordinarily, members of Parliament, as individuals, are denied formal associations with their counterparts in other countries. Most exchanges are between Governments and are conducted through diplomatic channels. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association is not the only organisation of its kind. The Inter-Parliamentary Union has an even greater membership of legislators in 73 Parliaments or federations. The diversity within such a union restricts the useful discussion of subjects which are appropriate to a more compact community with many common interests such as the Commonwealth. As the Commonwealth grows, some of the same limitations imposed by diversity are beginning to affect its councils. The conference of Prime Ministers last June illustrated how the variety of motives and opinions restricted the definition of a Commonwealth attitude on Vietnam. But the fact that the Commonwealth is too loose an association to function as a political unit is no reason to suppose that an exchange of views on Rhodesia, Vietnam, and other topics is a valueless exercise. Delegates should return to their Parliaments with a deeper appreciation and a more intimate grasp of issues of common concern. Then the interests of their electors will be served through the share their representatives take in guiding or appraising the policies of their Governments.