Will The British Commonwealth Remain As Of Old ?

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 October 1948, Page 5

Will The British Commonwealth Remain As Of Old ?

(Rec. 10.15 a.m.) DONDON, Oct. 8. The influential weekly, Economist, in an editorial headed “What is the Commonwealth,” said that the acceptance of the new Asiatic Dominions into the Commonwealth had created a new situation. “What has hitherto held the Commonwealth together, in the absence of formal ties,” says the Economist, “has been the common tradition, common instincts and common loyalties—all that is involved when one people regards another as its own kith and kin. None of these links exists between Indians and Pakistans, the Cingalese and the peoples of the other Dominions. Asiatic Aspirations’

“The new Dominions will not be prepared to stay in the Commonwealth on the same terms as the old. India wishes to be a republic and probably all the Asiatic Dominions will ask for independent national status for their citizens.

“There has been a tendency to say that if common allegiance to the Crown is the stumbling block to the new Dominions remaining within the Commonwealth it can be dispensed with and that if objection is taken to the word ‘British’ it can be removed, blit, if the,Crown and common citizenship go, exactly what is left of the Commonwealth, and if the obligations of Commonwealth membership are non-existent what exactly is the justification for making sacrifices to keep India in? “To be quite specific, do the Dominion Governments, now that there are seven of them, get all the secret telegrams they used to when there were only four?” Proposed Obligations The paper adds that the obligations of membership should be reduced to six rules: — 1. Acceptance of the rules of international law and willingness to settle disputes with other members by conciliation.

2. Respect for racial minorities. 3. Readiness to pursue foreign policies, on parallel or converging lines. 4. Joint defensive commitments. 5. Agreement not to pursue unilateral economic policies. G. Willingness to permit the movement of citizens of any part of the Commonwealth over the whole of it. “If any Dominion cannot accept most of these conditions then it and the other members ought to ask what it is doing in the Commonwealth, concludes the article.