BONDS OF EMPIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 21, 25 January 1936, Page 13

BONDS OF EMPIRE

MORE THAN COMMERCIAL

, Lord Macmillan, in proposing the toast of "The British Empire," at a dinner of the United Wards Club of the City of London, said that was an aspect of the Empire which was not sufficiently insisted on. They were so preoccupied with economic questions that they sometimes forgot there were other bonds than those of trade and commerce. In these days when the legal bonds of Empire had been loosened and the great daughternations were growing up and taking their place in the-world independently it was of paramount importance that they should realise that the bonds of the spirit ought to be strengthened in order that they might take the place of the legal bonds, for the bonds of the spirit were eventually more binding and efficacious than any the lawyears might devise. Lord Bessborough, who replied to the speech mentioned above, said that the Empire was the most loosely-knit organisation ever created. It was now nine years since the. representatives of the Empire decided in London that we in the United Kingdom and each of the Dominions were perfectly independent, autonomous, self-governing nations, freely associated, and bound by no constitutional ties whatever, except common allegiance to the Throne. He did not think the implications of that historic declaration, ratified by the Statute of Westminster, were realised by many people, either in this country or the Dominions. He did not believe ,that the tie of the Throne was a slender tie. It was a most powerful bond. There were other bonds, such as sentiment; common traditions, and interest.