DOMINION AFFAIRS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 48, 25 August 1925, Page 9

DOMINION AFFAIRS

SOME RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

SPEECH BY MR. AMEET.

(r«OH OWL OWM CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 25th June.

In proposing the toast of "Our Guests" at the New Zealand annual dinner, the High Commissioner (Sir f James Allen) suggested that Mr. L. S. Amery (the Colonial Secretary) might in his reply make some _ reference to the changes in the Colonial Office. It was sometimes suggested, said Mr. Amery in the count of his speech, that Empire unity could only be dealt with by some sweeping change .in the constitution of the Government of the Empire. That was not a point of ■ view which convinced him. He referred to the recent decision of His Majesty's Government to remove the business of corresponding with. the Dominions from the administrative sphere of the Colonial Office and place it under a separate Secretaryship of State for Dominion affairs. . The change was. not the outcome of any sudden bright idea which had just dawned upon them. It was only a further step long due, perhaps overdue, in a process of evolution that had been ■in gradual development for the last twenty years. - ■'■ ■ As far back as 1907 that great Imperial statesman, Mr, Alfred Dcakin, urged that the work of dealing with the great Dominions • was far too important to be jostled—that was his own word —in a department .. overburdened with administrative work and different in character. His criticism was met up to a certain point by the establishment in the Colonial Office of; a separate Dominions Department. At the following Imperial Conferenco in 1911 New Zealand, ever in the fore-

front with any practical suggestion fof improving the constitution of the Em. pire, through her then Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, brought forward • series of resolutions of which the first ran as follows: "That it is essential that the Department of the Dominions be separated from that of the Colonies and that the Department be. placed, under a separate permanent Under-Secretary." That resolution, though it was supported by General Botha, did not meet with the approval of the Colonial Office of the day, and was not pressed. In the .years which had intervened since then the- case for a clear division between the work of corresponding with the Dominions and the work of controlling the administration of the colonies and dependencies had grown more urgent' and more pressing. On the colonial! side the work of administration, of direct; tion, and control had increased enor-' mously in the existing territories, m\d-. new territories had been added. The' standard of work expected had gone up enormously too. Moreover, the "work of the Colonial Office as the link b^ tween the Government of this •coffintvT ~" and its partner Governments in ; the T£mpire had enormously increased.. To-day they were responsible for something hardly dreamed of twenty . -year's ago. The; business -of .keeping 'in.: consultation' with the great Dominions on all issues of foreign and v Imperial policies, the affairs"of the liea|'ue'of Nations, ;the work of the Committee, of Im* ■penal' Defence, on all those/"Flatters there-was a continual ■ volume of work entirely, different in character-from the work'of exercising control :over' the colonies. Ireland had also ; been; adjied

as a' self-governing ' country. (Another great and important sphere of work had come into existence in the fact that they had recognised the need for helping the thousands of people to go overseas so as to strengthen the Empire and to continue their lives under better conditions and give their families greater chances under the old flag rather than under the flag of a foreign country. It was all these developments which had led to the change upon which the British Government had now decided, a change which he believed was inevitable. They were not calling upon the British' public- to support & new army of officials. That was a matter of practical.convenience,-and in the same way it was a matter of prac* tical convenience' that for the present, at any rate, the Secretaryship of State should be vested in the same person. It might well be that any further development in. Imperial communication*

may cause the office of Dominion' affairs to he held by a separate Minister entirely engaged on that woik. Personally, he believed the., pres&nt arrangement would do more 'for tha maintenance of Imperial unity; than any .alteration in the Constitution. 'Oi^e of the objects which he had had before him in working out. these • changes was to give himself a better chance. of getting into' personal touch with the Dominions, not only in this country but by travel overseas. He liopcd when, these arrangements were jn working order it ■ might be: possible for him to visit Australia and New Zealand .ness year, ' :....'..