IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 966, 5 November 1910, Page 4

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

Since we wrote a week ago upon the really disturbing suggestion bj the London News that the British political difficulty will lead to an early start upon tho highroad to Imperial Federation, thero has been a marked quickening of the tempo of tho controversy at Home. Nothing has happened since then, nor is anything likely to happen within tho visible future, to disturb our opinion that there is no enthusiasm for Imperial Federation here or in the other colonies. Australian opinion, so far as it has received expression lately, is strongly against experiments in the direction of a patent Empire. For the purposes of our present comment it is convenient to summarise here the cable messages of the week bearing upon the question. Loud Huge Cecil, who is evidently concerned only with the practical possibility of Irish Homo Kule, to which he is opposed, gives a definition of Imperial Federation that persuades him of the necessity for preserving the union. Imperial Federation, lie says, "is intended to organise into a single nationality an Empire comprising Canada, Australia, South Africa, and Now Zca l land," and it would therefore bo "a singular way of organising the Empire as a single nation to begin by admitting the existence of two . nations within tho United Kingdom." From a later message summarising a statement by Mr. L. C. Amery, it would appear that Lord Hugh Cecii, propounded the theory that it hap not been the desire to claim separate nationality, but geographical situation, that has made the four selfgoverning units of the overseas Empire sccuro their own Parliaments. Mr. Amery says that the Dominions "have no intention of sacrificing thoir national individuality on the altar of better organisation," which is .of course quite true, but Mr. Ajiery goes on to speak of Imperial Federation coming, as "a federation of equal States, of which the. United Kingdom will be one." Imperial Federation, he adds, will neither bo helped nor hindered by the formation of a. federation in Great Britain. ,

To attentive studonts of the bewildering clamour of tho Empiredoctors that has made the past decado interesting for future historians and a little irritating to pre-sent-day subjects of the British Grown, the opinions of Lord Hugh Cecil and Mr. Amery will be recognised as fresh evidence of the practical impossibility of writing a British Empire Constitution that will meet, not only the wishes of the moment, but the possibilities of, the future. Tho letters of "Pacificus" make a fir more interesting part of tho controversy. This writer sayß that "the Federalists"—a very , comprehensive label this—contemplate "an Imperial Parliament to consider Imperial and foreign policy, Customs, defence, constitutional changes, and also certain powers of co-ordination, revision, and veto with regard to the acts of the National . Parliament.-" Wo are loft to guess how far he is ready to bo a Federalist under this definition, but that he would probably go only a little way is the proper deduction from tho, general caution of his advice. He 'does 'indeed suggest tho holding of a cloistored convention constituted like that which settled the American Constitution, and to that extent asserts that something more than the Imperial Conference is required. His suggestion would bo met by having representatives of the British Opposition at next year's Conference, but that proposition has already, and very wisely, been rejected by tho British Government.' The'reluctance of the Dominions to enter into British discussions is hot, perhaps, bo Strong as "Pacificus" thinks, nor is any serious difficulty to be apprehended from the ever-present possibility that the Dominions may in some measure seem to identify themselves with one or other of the British parties, for wisdom will' always provail in tho end against foolish meddling and partisanship. The colonics are devotedly attached to the _ British Crown, but they desire a rigid Federation as little as they desire absolute Unification; and so-far as New Zealand is concernod, tho great majority of those .who have given thought to the subject and have formed opinions about it are not convinced even of the wisdom of a standing Imperial Council. _ It is true that a few people desire Federation, since change in itself has a charm for some minds, and that at least one of our contemporaries has approved of a general turning-in-sule-out o.? the Empire, but the true feeling of the country is, that which we have sought to express. We are glad to note, by the way, that tho Auckland Star, which seems to have taken an unduly alarmist view of the letters of "Pacificus," has been preaching the doctrine so often expounded in columns, that "the real ties of Empire are sentimental and immaterial, and any Imperial system which depends for coherence and unity not upon loyalty and patriotism and blood-brotherhood, but on Parliaments and representative institutions, bears within it the seeds of disintegration and decay."