EMPIRE UNITY

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 February 1947, Page 6

EMPIRE UNITY

ORGANISATION TO BIND DOMINIONS CANADIAN SUGGESTION [N.Z.P.A. SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT] (Rec. 9.45 a.m.) LONDON, Feb. 6. Speaking at a meeting of the Royal Empire Society, following an address by Sir Arthur Salter on inter-imperial relations, Mr. W. J. Jordan, New Zealand’s high commissioner, said that the Dominion was so closely attached to Britain that it had not so far ratified the Statute of Westminster. He suggested that reciprocal agreements like that between Australia and New Zealand might be one of the means of cementing relations between the Dominions themselves and the United Kingdom. Sir Godfrey Huggins, Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia, said that he thought the time had come to show whether the Statute of Westminster was an act of disaster or an act. of strength. The immediate question was whether the peoples of the Empire were prepared to show that they were big enough to give up a little of their sovereignty for the sake of world peace. Lord Bennett, a former Prime Minister of Canada, said he did not see how the Commonwealth could continue unless some organisation could be formed to bind together the overseas’ Dominions.