Evening Post. FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 1925. A HESITANT VOICE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 7, 9 January 1925, Page 6

Evening Post. FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 1925. A HESITANT VOICE

to the desired association of the Dominions with the Mother Country in the responsibilities of foreign policy, "The Times" remarked shortly after the British General Election that " the Dominions should cease knocking at ihe open door and should come right in." , Though some of the Dominions are glad to have a grievance, ;and even seem eager to imagine one when there -is no reality available, the fact is' that it is the Mother Coiin-; try that is' anxious to make the association as intimate and as continuous as possible, 'while the reluctance, is on the side of the Dominions. Their rights to a share in controlling the foreign policy on which the issues of peace and war, and therefore of life and death, are dependent for them just, as much as for Britain herself are freely, fully, and ungrudgingly acknowledged. The door its open for the admission of the Dominions into the full knowledge and direct control of foreign policy, not spasmodically under the .stimulus, of occasional emergencies, .but in the regular routine of day-to-day business. The door is open, 1 but they do not come in. It almost seenfs as though some of them, '■ who, 'swelled by the pride • of- their achievement in the Avar and by the extravagant i and ; equivocal) recognition which it received from the Peace Conference, were loudest in their demands on the Imperial partnership, would prefer retaining their grievance and staying outside to availing themselves of the chance,for removing it by comNjng in. '■■ '"';.■.,• Following close oh the failure of; Mr. Amery.to secure a Dominions' Conference .to deal with ,the: Geneva Protocol, the publication of the White Paper recording Mr. Bamsay Mac Donald's futile: efforts to arrange a Conference to examine the adequacy of the- existing machinery of consultation is very timely. What induced Mr: MacDonald to take the matter up was the legacy of trouble which the preceding, Government had) bequeathed him in the shape of Canada's reluctance to ratify the Lausanne Treaty because she had not. been represented at the Conference which drew it up. It was a very, unpleasant position for the British Government to be placed in, and Mr.- Mac Donald and Mr. Thomas were taking a businesslike and statesmanlike . course when they.endeavoured to provide a remedy! Mr. Mac Donald's circular 5 telegram to the Dominion ■Governments of the 23rd June "expressed the Government's, anxiety that the Dominions were being inadequately consulted, and suggested Conference of two representatives from each Dominion to consider the problem." The only reply of which any details, are given is that of Mr. Bruce,- th'p Common^ wealth Prime Minister, which contains several interesting suggestions., , , / . '■' Mr. Bruce appealed for fuller regular advice ou foreign affairs from the. Imperial Government, pointing out that the greatest efforts should be made to anticipate questions requiiving urgent decision, instead of informing the Dominions after a decision had been made and acted upon. ■ • » The Imperial Government will doubtless be willing to send Mr. Bruce and the other Dominion Prime Ministers, fuller information than has been hitherto supplied, but, unless we are very'much mistaken, even in July last it was already sending them a good deal more than they could find time to read. It would be interesting to know what use the various Dominion Governments make of this information,, how many minutes 1 in the month any of them spend in the discussion of it, and how many suggestions per annum are made by all or any of them, and of what value. ■-.■.'

As Mr. Bruce's request for fuller information was supplemented by the suggestion that " the views of the Dominion Governments should be given greater consideration," one might suppose that the wastepaper baskets of Downing Street are filled with the disregarded opinions of oversea statesmen. We should be very much surprised if the boot in nafc really on fchg pther leg, il ijje seal trouble is ,usfc 4 gfi

we have suggested, in the orowded and unexplored pigeon-holes of the TDorninion Governments. But whether our conjecture hits the mark or not, the moral is the same. Mere consultation by letter or'cable is inadequate for business -of this kind. The exchange of information and opinion which is possible in this way may suffice, for the normal purposes of humdrum business, but where the issues are intricate, urgent, and rapidly changing the method is quite impracticable. A debate by correspondence is at the best a tedious, misleading, and unsatisfactory procedure, but when the subject-matter is changing so quickly that an argument may have been put completely out of date while it is in transit, the procedure may be far worse than useless. A form of consultation.which may in effect be' no consultation at all will be far worse than a mere negative if. it. paralyses action, until it is too late or engenders misunderstanding and ill-feeling, or perhaps produces both these unfortunate results. -

Whether Mr. Bruce is'right or wrong on. the point where we have ventured to differ from-him, the Empire is indebted to him for an excellent suggestion which - v is equally valuable in either case. The correspondence contains the first suggestion of a procedure which he has since declared the Commonwealth Government prepared to carry viz., the appointment of a liaison officer to deal with urgent foreign questions. The limitation of his authority to urgent questions might create unnecessary difficulties, but that is a detail. , The main . point is quite clear, viz., that the foreign policy of the Empire' cannot be jointly ran by an Imperial v Conference held every two or three years and supplemented only by Written or cabled correspondence. The maintenance of, some' continuous kind of personal touch is also necessary, and that seems to be only possible through Dominion representatives' in London. ' ■'.■-.."■•