Evening Post. TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1921. IMPERIAL AND DOMESTIC CLAIMS

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 34, 9 August 1921, Page 6

Evening Post. TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1921. IMPERIAL AND DOMESTIC CLAIMS

The conflict between the claims of domestic and of Imperial business is one of the problems which all of the Dominions have to face from time to time, arid every advance towards full participation in Imperial Government must reduce the intervals and increase the urgency of the problem. To New Zealand, as the Dominion most remote from the heart of the Empire, the difficulty is specially embarrassing. The attendance of our Prime Minister at one' of these Imperial gatherings in London means that he must be absent from New Zealand for a minimum of five months. This is a sufficiently serious tax at any time, involving, as it has almost invariably done, the suspension of vital parts of the public business during his When the intervals between Imperial Conferences have .been reduced from four years to two, or even one, as Mr. Massey sees to be ultimately desirable, the hindrance which they will present to the normal business of the; country will become so serious as to excite the apprehensions of even the most thorough-going Imperialist. The anti-Imperial element in New Zealand has hitherto been so weak aa to be almost negligible, bin) it may be reinforced to an alarming degree by accessions from the other side if the price of Empire is"found to be the partial' paralysis of Parliamentary business at short intervals. The difficulty is therefore one for which the Imperialist is just as much concerned as the Little New Zealander to. provide a remedy. It is of course from the Imperial--ist 1* standpoint that Mr 1. Arthur Myers, M.P.; approaches the question. Nobody values more than he the pursuit by ■ithe"c*Bominions of "a common policy upon all great Imperial and international questions," but he also recognises that "it is equally important that the several portions of the Empire should each pursue a strong and definite policy of self-development, with a view to every part of the Empire being eco* nomicajly and financially," Thus stated, a vigorous arid continuous policy of self-development is seen to be as necessary a part of. the Imperial scheme* as these occasional gatherings at which the great issues of common policy are discussed. A year or two before the w^i'j'Mr. Myers proposed to reconcile the claims of these two phases of policy by the appointment of a Minister of External Affairs, whose' special concei-n it would be to represent the, Dominion in London, but who would never lose touch with the Dominion, and would have the right to appear and speak in both Houses. If such, a Minister could have been appointed, and his position recognised as no less above party than that of the High Commissioner, a great advance might have, been made, but Mr. Myers re-' cognises that the. time for such, an experiment has passed. The time for appointing a resident Minister in London may also be said to have passed when the opportunity of giving the portfolio to so ideal a representative as the present Hy Commissioner was missed.

Mr. Myers now approaches the question from the other end. He accepts the position that the increased responsibilities entailed by the growing intimacy an^ importance of these representative Imperial gatherings must be discharged for each of the Dominions by the man in charge of its Government. \ "Prime Ministers—probably rightly," he says, "do.not desire tOj relinquish the prerogative and privilege which to their personally representing their..several countries at home and abroad." It is therefore in respect to their domestic functions that a

substitute must be provided, and Mr. Myers accordingly proposes the appointment of an Assistant or Deputy Prime Minister for,this purpose.

Such Deputy Prime Minister (he says) would be the recognised leader of Parliament at any time during the absence of the Prime Minister; and; in addition, would relieve the .head-of the Government from responsibility in connection with administrative departments which at present take up sornuch time of leading statesmen within the Empire. Prime. Ministers in general woald thus be able to devote adequate time and attention to questions of defence, finance, and general policy; both in regard to Imperial and home affair's.

If Mr. Myers's ideal could be realised it would, as he argues, be possible to have the Dominion represented at an Imperial Conference without delaying or deranging the ordinary business of legislation or administration. '

It is to be feared, however, 'that the proposal would involve too violent a breach with the facts and tendencies of constitutional practice to be feasible. The concentration of.power ip the hands of th<3 Prime Minister seems to be a, growing evil in all the democracies of the Empire, and the process will notvbe. checked ao far. as. internal

affairs are concerned by the mere desire to give him greater freedom for Imperial business. As domestic policy will remain the main subject of interest and contention and'the main criterion ol the fate of Ministries, there seems to be no hope that under party government the Prime Minister's vhold upon it will be relaxed in the interests of Empire policy. Nor can we see that changing the title of his substitute from ■" Acting-Prime Minister" to " Deputy Prime Minister " will increase that substitute's power.: or authority by a single jot.. The real power and the real centre of gravity will Remain just where they were. Sir Francis Bell's, reply to Mr. Myers's suggestion seems to us unanswerable, and his alternative suggestion is surely much, nearer the mark—viz., " that when the Imperial Conference is held there should be an agreement between all parties that the business of the session of that year should be confined to useful legislation," and that party politics should be in abeyance. Under such an arrangement Parliamentary business might be expedited instead, of being hindered by an Imperial Conference.