WESTMINSTER STATUTE

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 November 1931, Page 7

WESTMINSTER STATUTE

AUSTRALIAN CRITICISM. ® [BY CABLE —PBESS ASSN.—COPYRIGHT.] SYDNEY, November 13. Mr Bavin, the; leader of the State Opposition, in a speech at a University Law Society dinner, said the Statute of Westminster had been thrust upon the self-governing Dominions, mainly for mere party political reasons. The Australian Parliameat had adopted it. No sensible Australian wanted to see the self-govern-ing rights of the Dominions curtailed, but, equally no sensible Australian imagined that the existence of a reserve power in the Imperial Parliament to legislate for the whole Empire involved any real danger to these self-governing powers. The Statute of Westminster, he\added, was full of legal ambiguities. \ Mr Latham (Deputy Leader of the Federal Opposition) said that it appeared a mistake, from a political point of view, to attempt to embody in strict legal terminology an understanding and convention which ought to be fluid and elastic. Relationships between nations could more wisely be adjusted by political leaders acting in accordance with general public opinion than by the Law Courts interpreting the strict terms of a Statute.

PROPOSED PROVISIONS LONDON, November 13. Sponsored by Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Baldwin and Sir T. Samuel, the Statute of Westminster Text has been issued. It provides that the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865 shall not apply to any Dominion legislation, from the commencement, of this act on December 1. It stipulates for no repeal and no alteration of Australian and New Zealand Constitutions except in accordance with the prior law. Section nine preserves the legislative prerogatives of the Australian States, and conversely maintains Britain’s rights to legislate in State matters, in accordance with previous constitutional practice. Any dominion is empowered to revoke any section of the Statute.