DOMINIONS’ ROLE

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 February 1947, Page 7

DOMINIONS’ ROLE

PRIVILEGES AS WELL AS . BURDENS PLACE IN COMMONWEALTH (Rec. 11.15 a.m.) LONDON, Feb. 5. Britain must use the whole structure of the British Commonwealth to maintain an equal place in the main trinity of the post-war Powers, said Sir Arthur Salter, M.P., in a speech to members of the Royal Empire Society. He added that the Dominions, twice within a generation, had shared Britain’s wartime fortunes and efforts, but bore no proportionate share of either the burden or the privilege of policy and preparation in peace. They suffered the» consequences of any failure without participating in its causes. The Dominions alone would decide whether they would now accept or, indeed, demand a full share with the United Kingdom in their heritage as members of the, Commonwealth, with its burdens and its privileges. “It is the duty of the United Kingdom’s representatives to emphasise that Britain neither desires to continue the hegemony of past nor possesses the resourses to carry out the responsibilities which that once implied.”