Evening Post. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1926. THE REAL TEST

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 125, 23 November 1926, Page 8

Evening Post. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1926. THE REAL TEST

The downtrodden helots of the British Empire are free at last. For years the Dominions have groaned under a tyranny which with a heartless and unbending precision had regulated almost every detail of the lives of their inhabitants from Downing Street, and day by clay grew more arbitrary, more exacting, and more flagrantly incompatible with the spirit of the age. At Versailles their services in the Great War were rewarded by seats in the Peace Conference. At Geneva the representatives of the Dominions were permitted once a year to rub shoulders on terms of perfect equality with those of the free nations of the world, but a privilege which was confined to a few weeks only served to enhance during the rest of the year the contrast between their own state of bondage and the glories of independence and sovereignty which had dazzled them at close quarters in the persons of the delegates from Haiti and San Salvador. But the end has come at last. The cup of freedom which the Dominions arc privileged to drink at Geneva will in fulure years be without one drop of bitterness. The self-determina-tion which they helped to win for others has at last been extended to themselves, and the consummation has been no less peaceful than glorious.

Whon Franco in wrath her giant-limbs upreared, And with that oath which smote air, earth, and sea Stamped her strong foot and said she would be free,

the poet records that the monarchs of Europe took the field against her, and that, with her usual perversity, "Britain joined the dire array." But when, with a courage at least equal to that of revolutionary France, Canada and South Africa stamped their strong feet and vowed that they would be free, not a monarch could he found to rally to the side of Britain. The tyrant stood absolutely alone and surrendered ignobly without firing a shot or spilling a drop of blood. And one may imagine Mr. Mackenzie King or General Hertzog mounting the tribune to celebrate the occasion with the Magna Charta of the Dominions' rights in his hand and a "sic semper tyrannis" or a "pro bono publico," or something equally appropriate and thrilling, on his lips. Thus far but no farther! We have gallantly endeavoured to rise to the height of what we are assured is a great occasion, and we realise that we have completely failed. But if the reader who has made an equally conscientious attempt and achieved any better success is to be the first to cast a stone at us we have no great fear of the., consequences. After all, what is the fuss about? What is the momentous and even epoch-making event which "sets an eloquent seal on the Imperial Conference of 1926" and should be the signal for opening the flood-gates of joy in all parts of the Empire? What has the Conference done to awaken the Empire "into a new consciousness of its dignity and strength"? What new source of dignity and strength for the Empire has the Conference tapped? We are told that the Report of its Inter-Imperial Relations—we , presume that "Inter-Imperial" is now the official term, though "IntraImperial" would obviously be correct—is '"restrained yet eloquent," but there is surely more eloquence than restraint about the cabled forecast of its effects.

It is safe, wo are told, to forecast ■ that Englishmen will wake up to-mor-row with a new consciousness of a glorious inheritance shared by far distant lands, for let there bo no doubt the Report creates a now orientation and the Empire realises to-day its power and potentialities no less than Rome in tho days of Augustus Caesar. Shades of the great Augustus! WhaL would that organising genius have thought of the confession of our colossal but ramshackle Empire that it is utterly unable to organise? And how many Englishmen were able f,o wake up on the morrow of this forecast and derive from this confession —a confession so complacent, not to say proud, as to be not far from a boast —-"a new consciousness of a glorious inheritance"? But it is of course particularly in the Dominions that the thrill of the proclamation of their complete emancipation is to be felt. The pith of the document is contained in the following excerpts from the cabled nummary:—• Every Dominion is now a self-govern-ing member of the Empire and master of its destiny. . . The Dominions are

autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in stature, and in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by common allegiance to tho Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations . . . Though every Dominion is now and must always remain the solo judge of tho nature and extent of its co-operation, -no common cause will, in our opinion, be imperilled. Equality in status as far as Britain and the Dominions arc concerned is thus tho root principle governing our Imperial relations. There is little new in most of these declarations, and from the standpoint of New Zealand there is nothing helpful. That every Dominion is "a self-governing member of the Empire" is very stale news. That every Dominion is "master of its destiny" is also a familiar truth. Every Dominion, except Ireland, is master of its destiny even to the extent of being free to secede from the Empire if it so desires, though after secession its control of its destiny would certainly be infinitely less secure than it is now. But, as we knew all this before, where does the novelty come in? It is only the last point in the passages we have quoted that seems to break new ground. Equality in status as far as Britain and the Dominions are concerned is thus the root principle governing our Imperial relations. Canada and South Africa had been spoiling for a complete declaration of equality, and now they should be happy. But it will not be equally pleasant for the rest of the Empire if they are going to insist upon all the privileges 'to which this sweeping declaration appears to entitle them. Canada has already appointled an Ambassador of her own at ! Washington. Is she to have a foreign j j policy of her own too? Is she to be free to declare war on her own account or to run the Empire into a position that makes war inevitable, and then to look to it for a help which in similar circumstances she would not be prepared to give herself? Mr. Monroe says that the Newfoundlanders are willing to give the British Government "a blank cheque, to fill in as they will." A dangerous and a humiliating policy, Mr. Mackenzie King, and General Hertzog would reply, yet surely safe and businesslike in comparison with the perils of an abstract but unreal equality which would mean that the Empire gave even the feeblest of its members a blank cheque to fill in at' discretion. The real test of the I Imperial Conference will not be the glittering generalities of this Report, but the extent to which they can lie prevented from creating divisions in foreign policy which would wreck the Empire.'