DOMINIONS AND FOREIGN POLICY OF BRITAIN

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 153, 25 March 1938, Page 11

DOMINIONS AND FOREIGN POLICY OF BRITAIN

Questions Asked In House Of Commons EXTENT OF CONSULTATIONS DURING RECENT CRISIS Mr. MacDonald On Attitude To League By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. (Received March 24, 5.30 pan.) London, March 24. On the motion for the adjournment of the House of Commons yesterday Mr. G. Le M. Mander (Liberal, East Wolverhampton) asked the Secretary of State for the Dominions, Mr Malcolm MacDonald, what had been the extent of the consultations with the Dominions and what agreement had been reached in connection with the profound change in foreign policy since thejast election. . . , Mr. Mander said he understood the Dominions had been informed of the progress of negotiations with Italy but-would not be consulted unless something arose closely concerning them. What, he asked, was the Government’s attitude in relation to . the Dominions’ attitude toward the League of Nations, to membership of which thev attached enormous importance? They were willing fully to participate in the collective system of the League except as part of which the Empire was incapable of being defended. It it were abandoned Australia and New Zealand would have a pool chance of maintaining their independence. If the League wen. as a result of changed British policy the Empire would go, too.

Some of the Dominions, Mr. Mander said, had made it clear that if it were to be the “old dog" fight on a purely nationalist basis they could not be expected to participate. There was strong Canadian and South African opinion in favour of remaining neutral in a war in which the Empire was involved if that war took place outside the Cove nant of the League. Canadian quarters resented the attempt to buttress the policy of the Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain, when the Canadian Government bad not been consulted. Mr. Lyons’s Statement. Mr. Mander quoted a Canberra message to “The Times” on March 3 stating that the Federal Prime Minister, Mr. J. A. Lyons, had obtained Mr. Chamberlain’s authority to say that there had been no change in principle in the British attitude toward the League. A cable of March 22 showed that Australian newspapers reflected a cleavage of opinion. “The main point is that Mr. Lyons, according to this cable, said that information given him was that there was no change in foreign policy,” Mr. Mander said. “Was such an assurance given? Have the precise words of Mr. Chamberlain on February 22 been, put to the Dominions, because I believe they mean the complete abandonment of the collective system of the League? What do the Dominions think of this statement, particularly New Zealand, which is whole-heartedly behind the Covenant?”