INDECISIVE RESULTS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 114, 11 November 1930, Page 9

INDECISIVE RESULTS

IMPERIAL RELATIONS

DIFFICULTIES SIDE-STEPPED

(Received 11th November, 1 p.m.) LONDON, 10th November. With a haste made possible by aa indication of indecision, it would seem ,' almost certain that the Imperial Conference will end on Thursday without one important constructive decision. There is reason to believe that undet. sustained Irish objections to phraset ■ and principles, every contentious subject under the heading of Inter-Imperial Relations has been indecisively sidestepped. For instance, the heads will not make any recommendation relatingto the Privy Council, leaving the ppsi-, , tion as it stood in 1926. Ireland has been desirous that her own Supreme Court should be the final tribunal, but it is not easy to find a formula to effect this and reconcile an independent status with the provisions of Clause. Two of the 1922 Irish Treaty. ■ ' So far as Australia is concerned, she can claim hitherto not to have :exer:-M cised her right to decree that there be no appeals to the Privy Council, whereas New Zealand will continue to regard her right to appeal as a privilege, though not a duty. It is understood that the heads recommend the acceptance of the 1929 Leal Conference's convention, recommending that any change relating to the succession of Koyal Title and styles requires the assent of all the Do- ■ minions, though there have been- Irish objections to the use of the Great Seal. This, like other touchy subjects, is lett without, recommendation. The formula for carrying out tbs. Supercession of Laws Validity Act has -■■■ a fixed time-table, allowing the Dominion Parliaments time to consult their Province or.States and then pass their own enactments, preliminary to asking Britain to pass a final general Act. It is explained that thero is no per-, missive clause allowing any Dominion • to please itself regarding the Validity , Act, though it can achieve the same end by inaction, which will automatically exclude it from the final British Act, but if it desires later inclusion, it must notify this accordingly when the other Dominions submit their assenting. Acts. -, It is;, worth:- cm- 7 phasising at the time when ttia, . talk of debt repudiation has senouslv shaken Australia's name in London "that the right of the Dominions to abolish the power of disallowance' does not affect the Colonial Stock Act, 1900. , It remains exercisable in the event of any act, injurious to the stockholder or any departure from the original con- .> tract. . .',•".■ ""• Nothing new has arisen regarding the procedure of appointing Governors* • General. ___