EMPIRE CONSULTATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 85, 7 October 1943, Page 5

EMPIRE CONSULTATION

IMPERIAL CABINET URGED

LONDON, October" 6. "The welcome arrival here of FieldMarshal Smuts seems a good moment to urge again the formation of a permanent Imperial Cabinet," says the "Daily Mail" in a leading article. "The counsel of Field-Marshal Smuts and the other Dominion statesmen has been invaluable, but unfortunately intermittent. We shall need closer contact with the Dominions in the future years, and it can be obtained only if some of their best men are in session in London. We feel that this development is bound to come after the war." , "The Times" says in a leading article that Field-Marshal Smuts's arrival should be an earnest of far-reaching developments. "Mr. Churchill has told Parliament that Britain regards a meeting of the Empire Prime Ministers as an important immediate objective," it states. "Most of the Prime Ministers have emerged from the recent elections with their tenure of office confirmed; they have been freed for a considerable time —even in New Zealand and Australia, where the direct menace of the enemy has only partially been lifted—to withdraw temporarily from the national administration and bring a contribution to the common pool."

"The Times" adds that the more prosperous state of the war has made the meeting physically and politically easier and has also increased the urgency of consultation.