THE LIBERAL LEADER

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 5, 6 July 1923, Page 4

THE LIBERAL LEADER

DOMINION'S -VOICE IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Speaking to the resolution, the Leader of the Opposition (Sir. T. M. Wilford) said the .Imperial Conference was hot a conference of Governments, but a conference !of Dominions Prime Ministers, who acted as delegates of their respective countries. There was nothing in the way 1 of opprobrium in the, use of the word •■' delegate." He did not agrae with Mr. Massey. in what he said about Bussia. The Imperial Conference and tho contror of foreign policy as a result pf that Conference were the anvil on which the future constitution of the Empire was hammered out. In 1921 tho Prime Minister of Canada was instructed' to oppose the renewal of. the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and was instructed by the Canadian Parliament that if the Pact were renewed Canada was to be asked for exemption. Among other matters, tho Imperial Conference afforded an opportunity for the Dominions to, express their viows on foreign policy. He wanted to put it to the Prims Minister that any secret treaty was a breach of trust. Ireland was now given the right to stand in or out;of foreign wars, and Malta, had a similar paragraph recently embodied in its Constitution, which, by the way/ provided for proportional representation. By passing the resolution before the House, Parliament would be falling into line with the constitutional position of the other Dominion. The Imperial Conference was not _an Imperial Cabinet. In all foreign affairs the Dominions had the right to bo consulted. .

Mr. Massey: "We are entitled not only to be consulted, but to have a voice.

ArMlw^i lfoi d:- <! Quit6 £0-" Continuing, Mr. Wilford said this Dominion had a right to gee that its" representative folbwed every move of foreign policy. There was; no doubt, that the Dominions had the right to stand in or out of a foreign, war, but-the real truth was that we could only get oufi of the Empire if we wanted to by fighting out way out. The Dominions had to stand in with the Empire. The constitutional position on that point had been soundly stated by Lc-rd Birkenhead. . Mr Wil ford was afraid of: what Mr, Massey would commit the Dominion to in the way of naval-expenditure at the Conference, and lie. would like him' to state his.attitude■ *n that point. .The Dis armament Treaty was not in being because .one Power had failed to sign

that ihat .country had never accepted Regarding the Ruhr; Francs wax in hei exportable surplus, unless the ro mm I^^ the Mother Country yp°hCy lvith> destroyed KauU and Tsarism 1

A SUMMING UP weless^^thotli.;^s tOof^S iipiii amateur Th^ the amateur. The present cost of naval defence was, to New Zealand, .£338 000 and ho welcomed tho proposal <o in crease it to £500,000 He m n i, • i tract went^to America, and iot to 1m" traha or New Zealand. Trade wSh Eussi a way a matter which mustbeYe £ ns^^t^v» Sague hTd^^^e^Onihe 11! 6 depended the peaP ce of the Wld LeaSM