‘Commonwealth One Of Hopes Of World’

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31994, 22 May 1969, Page 12

‘Commonwealth One Of Hopes Of World’

The Commonwealth was one of the real hopes of the world, said the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral (the Very Rev. Martin Sullivan) to a near capacity audience in the Civic Theatre last evening.

Dean Sullivan, who is a member of the central council of the Royal Overseas League in London, was speaking at a meeting organised by the Christchurch branch of the league in association with the Christchurch CityCouncil.

If the gap between the rich and poor was joined with the battle between the black and white, the outlook would be grim indeed, said Dean Sullivan. This however, was precisely where the Commonwealth could act as a bridge for mankind.

“We have rich and poor countries,” he said. “We have a multi-racial society and we have unity even now. We must work to make this Commonwealth work because it is one of the hopes of the whole wide world. “There are signs of this bridge being built already before our eyes, but it is very difficult and even frustrating particularly when the younger nations, which are given so much, are asking for so much more.

"The Commonwealth can be an instrument of dialogue and common action, an instrument by which division and wounds can be healed. Think of the ways in which we can contribute to the problems of race, to the areas of isolation and to increasing mutual understanding.” Dean Sullivan said that New Zealanders should ask themselves about the issue which the Commonwealth itself presented to them. “A NETWORK” “Commonwealth relationships must not be bilateral, they must be multilateral,” he said. “We in New Zealand ought not to think simply of relationships with Britain, nor ought we to think of relationships with Britain, Canada and Australia. We are now a network of links. “We in New Zealand have got to be on guard against Isolation, against concern only with our immediate neighbours and against concern only with what goes on in our own back yard,” he said.

Dean Sullivan said that many of the rich countries of the world, of which New Zealand was one, from time to time felt poor, not because they were poor, but because something went wrong with thebalance-of-payments.

I When this happened it limited that country’s practical assistance to other people, it led to decline in tolerance and its attitudes towards migrants changed. CHANGING NATURE

Dean Sullivan said that in recent years the winds of change had blown violently in the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth now included 28 countries with full sovereign status, it measured 14 million square miles and had a population of more than 800 million people. Nine of these countries acknowledged the Queen as the monarch, 12 were republics and three had their own monarchs.

Twelve only had a population less than the population of New Zealand. The vast majority of people were coloured with 13 countries in Africa alone. To this total could be added

six states associated with Britain, 25 dependencies on Britain and nine dependencies on Australia and New Zealand. “We are a miniature United Nations and like them we have our sore spots in the middle of it—Rhodesia and Nigeria,” he said. Dean Sullivan said that there were four or five ways in which Commonwealth relations could be strengthened. The first was by inter-Com-monwealth aid. In recent years Canada has increased its share by 15 per cent and Australia by 5 per cent. “I would want as a New Zealander to see us put ours up as others have done,” he said. Dean Sullivan said that it was difficult to realise that there were people who did not really care for the Commonwealth at all. There were people in Britain too who regarded the Commonwealth as New Zealand plus, so high was New Zealand's prestige and so enriched its reputation.

“We are a family not just a club,” he said. “I believe the world would be impoverished if the Commonwealth broke up and it could begin to break up if it loses its family ties.”