Evening Post. THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1923. IMPERIAL REPRESENTATION

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 57, 8 March 1923, Page 6

Evening Post. THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1923. IMPERIAL REPRESENTATION

Two interesting statements were credited to Mr. Bonar Law in a London message yesterday, and one would like to think that they are inter-related. The first was the announcement of the Government's decision to appoint a committee "to inquire into the co-operation of the three services from the point of view of national and Imperial defence." The second of' Mr. Bonar Law's statements related to the date of the Impeiial Conference. Keplying to a question, he said that he had noticed a speech in which Mr. S. M. Bruce, Premier of Australia, had said that he was convinced that the Imperial Conference should be held at the earliest possible moment." Mr. Bonar Law was himself in communication with the. Dominions, and "hoped that it would be possible to hold the Conference later in the year." The spesch of the Commonwealth Prime Minister to which Mr.'Bonar Law refers has not been reported here at length, and his .reasons for desiring to see the Imperial Conference summoned in such hot haste are not stated. If he has any definite ideas to submit to the Conference they should be fully disclosed to .his own State and to the Empire, so that, everybody concerned may know why he regards the summoning of the Conference as an urgent matter. An Imperial statesman would be welcome indeed who had any forward policy at all to submit to the Empire at a time when drifting and backsliding Have taken the place of the high Imperial hopes with which the. war closed.. But if his, ideas are of any real value and are to have any chance of acceptance they should not be kept secret. At present both Mr. Bruce and his ideas are unknown quantities to the Empire, and there is absolutely nothing" to' show that his desire for an early Conference is promoter! by n-n.v----thinej more than the vague enthusiasm of a new broom. >

It is indeed significant and depressing that while the Dominion statesmen who have had experience of these matters have received the talk of a Conference this year with coolness or hostility, it is left to a newcomer to support the proposal, and that even he apparently prefers not to disclose his reasons. In spite of the strong pleas submitted by Mr. Hughes and Mr. Massey to the Imperial Conference of 1921 for treating the defence of the Empire as a matter in which all its selfgoverning States should take a hand, the Conference confined itself to a sort of copy-book declaration of principles which really bound nobody to anything and had no practical effect whatever. What made the matter still worse was that on their return to their respective Dominions .the "taihoa" policy of the Conference was acquiesced in by Mr. Massey. and Mr. Hughes, and with their consent New Zealand and Australia have been marking time like Canada and South Africa, while Britain continues to bear practically the whole burden of the Empire's naval defence. Such an attitude on the part of the Dominions provides a very ignoble contrast to the splendour of their performance in the Great War and to the airs which they have given themselves as partners in the Empire on an equal footing with Great Britain, or even as independent States under a charter conferred by the Peace Conference and the League of Nations. If Mr. Bruce has any better gospel to commend to the Dominions than this, unfortunate combination of high hopes and tall talk with the flagrant neglect of the most fundamental of national obligations, it will be welcome indeed.

Though the British taxpayers continue to bear substantially the whole burden of the Empire's naval defence, Colonel Repington reminds us that they are no longer doing so in a manner that gives us a reasonable assurance of safety. The crushing weight of their other burdens makes such a course im-, possible. They are too proud to insist upon the Dominions' contributing their fair share. The Dominions, not to put too fine a point upon it, are too mean to undertake their fair share. Even after Mr. Massey's candid confession in his last Finanpial Statement that such a course is "grossly unfair apd unpatriotic," New Zealand continues to share in the general der fault. That the result'of this default is as perilous to the safety of. the Dominions as it should be mortifying to their pride and their self-respect is put beyond a doubt by Colonel Repington's article in the "Daily Telegraph."

After studying iho results of tho war Ih JSttHjpis and Ameriflii, I lm<l, he fiß-ys, that other notions in the mutter

of defence have followed the policy of "safety first." We have not. We seem to be the only State in the world— not excepting the United States—which has reduced its peace establishments to the danger point, even for the Empire's internal security. Finance and politics have been our guide, nqt facts and-fore-sight. . . . The Navy has been cut to the bone. Qur Air Force ig incapable of playing a serious part in Home defence. Our Army will not bear comparison even with the pre-wai' force, which proved: most inadequate.

Has Mr. Massey anything to say about our responsibility for this lamentable state of affairs? Has Mr. Wilford anything to say about it? Will Sir Joseph Ward, who fourteen years ago thrilled the Empire with New Zealand's offer of a Dreadndught, and has also done great work for us in the matter of military service, have anything to say*on the matter when he addresses the electors of TaurangaJ Or will all these three leaders treat the question in the manner that the Bed Flag Labourites and the White Flag Pacifists would prefer—viz.; in silence? We shall see. Meanwhile, it is worth noting that Colonel Repington . brings the matter right home to the Dominions in another passage of his article.

We have had, he points out, no announcement of tfie present state of interImperial relations in regard to defence. Before the war we knew that the Dominions were working with us; now we do not know where we stand, except that, politically, Britain cannot ■ commit the Dominions, without consultation.

Colonel Repington speaks by the book. The outcome of the first Imperial Conference after the war, which while the war lasted was the subject of such eager, hopes, was, so far as the two vital and kindred issues of foreign policy and naval defence are concerned, little more than a worthless enunciation of high-sounding principles, and a olearer- recognition of the Dominions to consultation before they are again involved in war. But the significance of the qualifying word tically" must not be overlooked in Colonel Repington's statement. "Politically" the Dominipns have a, right to be consulted before war is declared. In international law, and therefore, actually, the Dominions will be at war whenever Britain is at war, whether the initiative pomes from Britain herself or from a foreign Power.

In his striking reply to Sir John Sinclair's plea for the appointment of a Resident Minister to represent the Dominion in London, Sir Francis Bell argued very strongly that the existing machinery of consulta-t tian is inadequate; that it would not be improved by the presence in London of a Minister who would soon be out of touch with the Dominion and at the best could not have an original res.ppnsibility; fchat"therawas one Gov&vrnment of the Empire—^and that-was the Government qf England—in, .its , relation to foreign Powers"; a-nd that it could not possibly await the re? suit of a full consultation when promptitude was the price of safety. Sir Francis drove his point home with telling effect byreferr ring to the action which kept the Turks from the Dardanelles six months ago.

Was England to. wait until she had heard what each of the Dominions thought about the matter hefoi* she said to the Turks: "So far and no farther"? It was absolutely essential that the word should go immediately. If there had been time for consultation, in that sens,e was it worth while consulting us or Australia or Canada ? We might afterwards say that we were no party to it, and would not send any men to help. That was another matter.

Beyond questiqn there is n.o room for more than one foreign policy in the Empire, and some authority must be prepare*} in an emergency to enforce it without delay. Sir Francis Bell would add to our obligations if he would apply his logic and his lucidity to the other aspect of the Imperial problem—the duty of the Dominions in regard to Em T pire defence.