THE BRITISH EMPIRE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 72, 18 December 1937, Page 23

THE BRITISH EMPIRE

A Study Of The Imperial Commonwealth “Kingdoms in Partnership,” by C. J. M. Alport (London: Lovat Dickson). Mr. Alport lias written an interesting and useful study concerning changes in the British Commonwealth extending over the last 150 years. “The book,” he says, “was started with the object of giving a clear and readable study of tile growth of the Commonwealth.” Valuable appendicies are included, containing the text of the Statute of Westminster and a very full bibliography, and the book is fully indexed.

The author is a tutor and lecturer in Imperial Affairs at the Bonar Law College, Ashridge, and therefore speaks with considerable knowledge of those matters about which he writes. The study is more descriptive than analytical.

After a study of the various parts of the Empire, the author concludes with his view of the present position. He says: "But the Imperial Commonwealth has no sanction behind it: it seeks no compromise with force. Either its members reach an agreement voluntarily or the system fails. If a sanction exists, it is the knowledge that inflexibility and pettiness would force our relationship into dissolution, and that such a price would be too heavy for Great Britain or any of the Dominions to pay. While this contributes to its strength, it is also a possible source of weakness, for everything depends on the system remaining flexible.” The author is very much at home in the historical review that he makes from the closing years of the eighteenth century to to-day. He works in a broad sweep. There is nothing narrow, parochial or partisan. This is equally true whether he is writing or institutions or of the component parts of the Commonwealth. He deals with the relationships that exist between the United Kingdom and the .Dominions, between th j Dominions themselves, between the British Commonwealth and foreign countries, and the relations of the British Commonwealth to the League of Nations. His style is clear and concise, and hi reasoning logical and temperate. A good example of the author’s method may be seen in the chapter which he devotes to New Zealand. He gives a masterly summary of the history of this Dominion from the earliest times to to-day.

Talking of the present Government, he says: “For the second time in its history New Zealand has taken a flight into the realms of advanced economic experiment. The Government has taken upon itself to interfere extensively in the activities of the individual . . . The real power behind the Labour Party, Mr. Walter Nash, is, however, nothing more extreme than a Baldwinian Tory in an overseas mould ... As far as its relations with the Commonwealth are concerned, New Zealand, whether under Labour or National ministry, remains more jealous of its connection with the Mother Country than any other Dominion, and more willing, whether in questions of defence or foreign policy, to co-operate with her.”

The reader of this volume, if he exercises his intelligence as he reads, will have more than a passing acquaintance with the affairs of the Commonwealth and its government and its problems when he has reached the last page. And the book is easy reading. There is nothing heavy about it. It does not drag.