Evening Post. MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1923. EMPIRE PROBLEMS

Evening Post, Volume 91, Issue 91, 15 October 1923, Page 6

Evening Post. MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1923. EMPIRE PROBLEMS

In an article distinguished by the judicial tone and the clearness of exposition which it has accustomed us to expect, the " Round Table " deals, in its September number, with, the most important of the practical problems confronting the Imperial Conference. The five sections into .which the article is divided indicate the problems to which the writer assigns priority and their order of precedence. The headings are: (1) Foreign Policy, (2) Diplomacy, (3) Defence, (4) Free Trade, Preference, and Migration, (5) East and West. The first two of these subjects are obviously so closely related as to be really one, and from this one Defence, which is the sanction of foreign poJicy, is practically inseparable. From the standpoint of New Zealand, defence is the aspect of the Imperial problem which stands in most urgent need of emphasis, since she has far more confidence in the capacity of British statesmen to exercise their full legal control of foreign policy wisely without any help or interference from the Dominions than in the capacity of the Empire to defend itself if they fail to keep it out of war. But the assignment of two pages in a thirty-page article to this phase of the question seems surprisingly meagre. Even within this limit, quite enough is said to prick the conscience of any self-respecting overseas pa triot. The two reasons given by the writer for the brevity of this section of his article are that there is no immediate need for the " Commonwealth," by which he means Empire—a very awkward substitution in a part of the world where "Commonwealth" means Australia and "Empire" is still a term to be proud of; and that the question now is rather one of "considering the best geographical distribution of such strength as we now possess, and the financial distribution of the burden involved."

Leaving this matter, and even such a question as the merits of the proposal to fortify Singapore, to the experts, the "Round Table" concludes its brief treatment of the subject as follows:

We will simply print some figures showing expenditure to-day, for they point their own moral. We have them as correctly as we have been able to obtain them. As Regards naval cxpenditurey according to Mr. Bruce, the latest figures show that Great Britain is expending on her navy 263 Bd, Canada Is 4d, New Zealand 4s 7d, and Australia 8s 2d per head.

These figures speak for themselves with an eloquence which the writer considered to need no argument for its support. The British Navy is an Empire Navy insofar as it exists for the protection of the whole Empire, but it is properly called the British Navy because Britain is loaded with substantially the whole burden of maintaining it. Britain is spending on naval defence more than three times as much as Australia, nearly six times as much as New Zealand, and exactly twenty times as much as Canada. Yet Canada has recently concluded, a treaty with a foreign Power on her own account, and is so proud of the innovation that she may be relied upon to carry it a good deal further. "If Mr. Lapointe [the Canadian Minister of Marine] did not sign Imperially," said the Montreal "Star," "when he signed the Treaty between the King and the American Executive, then his signature is not worth the ink he made it with." We may add that if Canada cannot rely upon the power of the Empire whose existence she ignored when she made the Treaty, or upon the complaisance of the other party, the same valuation will hold.good.

What does the Montreal/Star" mean when it speaks of toe Canadian Minister as having " signed Imperially " ? Ifc can only mean that he signed on behalf of the whole Empire and with intent to bind the whole Empire, and that his signature had that effect. Such an idea seems hardly credible, but what other rational meaning can be given to the words? The full rigour of -a construction which would allow Canada to draw the rest of the Empire into a war on which it had not been consulted is presmnably relaxed by the same implied reservation which Canada has repeatedly claimed for herself. If Canada, as Sir Wilfrid Laurier maintained, will not be at war until the Canadian Parliament says so, she must surely concede to the other Dominions and to Great Britain a similar, privilege. The British Navy will not move in defence of a Canadian treaty unless the British Parliament says the word. For this relief Great Britain may be thankful, but it really dbe-s not alter the constitutional position. In international law, the Empire is an undivided unit, and one part of it cannot be at war without involving all the others. They may, of course, refuse to fight, but whether they fight or not they are equally open to attack, and they can only get pe!ace by a declaration of neutrality, and a treaty which would formally smash the British Empire in a manner which some authorities consider to have been already achieved informally by the Treaty of Versailles.

Such must be the inevitable outcome of the course which Canada

has taken unless it can be checked by a procedure which will subject the whole foreign policy of the Empire, and therefore all its treaties, to a representative control. The "IrriperiaJ" signature by each Dominion of whatever treaties it thinks fit will wreck the whole concern. " The Dominions," says the "Round Table," "will certainly no longer give Great Britain a blank cheque to do the best she can. They will regard themselves as bound by no policy to which their Parliaments have not given their as.seht." New Zealand would be glad to have an effective voice in the control of the Empire's foreign policy, but she Recognises that in such a matter rights and duties must be commensurate, and that this insistence by the Dominions of their full rights as nations to a full share in the partnership while they persistently ignore its obligations savours of "hot air" rather than statesmanship. New Zealand does not like the system of giving blank cheques for the senior member of the Imperial firm to fill in at discretion, but she considers it- infinitely preferable to a system which would allow all the junior partners to draw cheques on the firm's account exactly as they please.