POWER OF THE KING

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 11, 14 January 1932, Page 10

POWER OF THE KING

FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE

STATUS OF THE DOMINIONS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 24th November.

During the past few months a fundamental change in the Constitution h=.s been quietly carried through without any alteration in the formal law. This matter is referred to by Professor H. A. Smith (Professor .of International Law in the University of London) in a letter to "The Timeu":—

Last March (he says) it was announced that in future the Irish Free State Ministers would advise the King directly without even the formal intervention of.a Secretary of State, thus giving renewed and permanent expression to a principle already implied in the appointment, of the present Gover-nor-General of Australia. This.was done without any consultation of Parliament and without attempting to obtain the general assent of the Dominions. It clearly goes beyond any of the agreed decisions reached at the Imperial Conferences of 1926 and 1930. What docs it mean? .

_ Clearly, the King cannot be placed in the impossible position of being obliged automatically t.6 give his sanction, to decisions and ■policies which may frequently be in conflict with one another. If, then, the duty of reconciling differences is withdrawn from the Cabinet in London, it must devolve upon the King himself. In other words, the Sovereign becomes the personal arbiter of inter-Imperial differences, and upon him ./falls the responsibility for; maintaining the unity of the EnTpire. I need hardly point out that this involves a fundamental change in. the historic practice of our' Constitution. I am not suggesting that the change is wrong, for I am among those who believe that an extension of the personal authority of the ' Grown would be wholly for : the good. "What I am suggesting is that this decision, which has passed almost unnoticed by the general public, is more worthy of study than the precise drafting of the Statute of "Westminster. ; ~