COMMONWEALTH AND DOMINION

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 23, 27 January 1912, Page 6

COMMONWEALTH AND DOMINION

Mr. Andrew Fiaher is certainly wrong in assuming thai there i» any widespread feeling in this country in favour of federation with Australia, but the general trend of the resolution which he submitted to the Federal Labour Conference it Hobart, of the speech in which he supported it, and of his remarks to an interviewer which were cabled from Me'bourne yesterday, can be heartily reciprocated from this aide ot the water. There was no mention of federation in | the resolution of the Hobart Conference. "Being impressed with the belief that the interests, welfare, and safety of the Commonwealth and New Zealand are mutually bound up with each other," the conference declared at Mr. Fisher's instance for the establishment of "closer political, industrial, and commercial relations between the two countries," and urged the Commonwealth Government to open up negotiations with the Government of New 'Zealand with a view to promoting this object. There is nothing here that the most jealous champion of New Zealand's independence can reasonably resent. Mr. Fisher's statement that both Australia and New Zealand recognise "that the fate of one would be the fate of the other if they ever happened to come into conflict with greater peoples, with nations more powerful than themselves," is quite beyond .challenge. It is impossible to suppose that a successful foreign invasion of Australia could leave New Zealand as \t is. The British fleet and Australia's fleet must both have been beaten * before such a thing could happen, and with these two protectors out of the way how could New Zealand stand alone against the Power or Powers that had disposed of them? It may be said that this argument goes to provo that we should look rather to Britain than to Australia in framing our defence policy. It is undoubtedly true that under existing conditions, and under any conditions that the present generation ia- likely to witness, the one supreme need for every part of the Empire is the protection of the British Navy ; but it it, also true that by common consent the perfecting of local defence is an essential Dart of the problem of Imperial defence. Defence, then, is one matter upon which the common interests of Australia and New Zealand, and their geographical proximity t» one 'another and remoteness from other parts of the Empire, require a special co-operation within the general limits of any Imperial scheme. The (common authorship of our land defence schemes and the common use of Australia's military college represent hopeful beginnings of j co-operation in, these departments. As to naval policy, it will suffice to quote the concluding sentence of the interest- j ing article on "The Defence Policy oi New Zealand" in the Round Table for December :— "One step forward might have been made in this direction in 1809, when Australia invited New Zealand to join hands in the establishment of an Australasian fleet unit/ but for some reason New Zealand declined." The result is that New Zealand has been attached to the China Station, while Australia is setting to work to provide a unit on her own account. But in the broader fields of general policy there is the possibility of a close co-operation, the benefits of which are beyond the range of controversy. Next to defence, Mr. Fisher mentions "very full reciprocity between the Dominion and the Commonwealth, amounting even to free trade." The same considerations which made Australia repudiate Mr. Chamberlain's original suggestion of Imperial free trade prevent New 'Zealand from entertaining the idea of complete free trade with Australia. The natural reluctance of the weaker and less fully developed country to have its industries swamped by those of its more powerful neighbour forbids the banns in each case. But without complete free, trade there is the possibility of a reciprocity which should be liberal and fruitful, both in the commercial sphere and in others, as we shall take the opportunity of showing in a future article.