DIRECT VOICE

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 126, 30 May 1935, Page 8

DIRECT VOICE

DOMINIONS AND BRITAIN

A SUGGESTION REVIVED

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, May 11.

The "Morning Post" publishes an article by Lord Strathspey in which he repeats his appeal that representatives of the Dominions should be given seats in both the House of Lords and in the Commons. It is ten years ago since Lord Strathspey brought the same matter up in the House of Lords, and also wrote a book on the subject. Lord Strathspey now suggests that the Jubilee of King George be commemorated in the history of the Constitution by a return to what is really an older ideal. "My proposal could be carried out," he says, "at one stroke of the pen, if the Cabinet would offer each of the Dominions the privilege of a seat in the House of Lords for each High Commissioner, and a seat in the House of Commons for an additional representative from each Dominion, to be selected by their respective Governments, either with a vote or merely a voice. "The danger today is the habit of involving the Empire overseas in obligations to which they may not wish to be bound, such as those eternal European pacts and treaties which seem to change from day to day—now pledging the Empire to fight for Germany; now for France or for any little war that happens to be going. Then there are the various quotas and tariffs at 'the expense of the Dominions, with preference given to Denmark or the Argentine, till, not being consulted, they are beginning to open their ports to America, Germany, and Japan, at the expense of the Mother Country. "In Geneva, of course, the Dominions see to it that they have a voice in the doings of the League, but Westminster becomes more and more 'Little Englander' and yet more and more dictatorial from the Empire standpoint. Hence, it might be a very healthy step if some Cabinet dreamers were 'brought back to earth' from time to time by a straight talk in Parliament from the actual representatives of the Dominions. Ten years ago, r remember, the main obstacle was that distance prevented the idea from being realised, that it would take time to get instructions from home. But today, with wireless telephony, both time and distance have been annihilated."