BRITISH EMPIRE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 16 April 1926, Page 5

BRITISH EMPIRE

ITS FUTURE GROWTH. no restrictions wanted WAR -TIME PR O BLEM . BY CABLE- -PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYIIiGHT. OTTAWA, April 14. Professor Timothy A. Smiddy, Irish Free State Minister Plenipotentiary at Washington, told an audience at the Canadian Club, including many members of Parliament, that the best minds of Great Britain were opposed to setting clown any definite bounds to restrict the evo'utioii of the British Empire. Just as the British constitution was an unwritten one and was the result of development, so the relationships among the various portions of the Commonwealth of Nations .should grow, meeting exigencies ns they arise, and deciding bv conferences, mutual understandings and discussions what .steps should b e taken. _ With each member of the States ox the Empire ocupying the same position, the question arose as to whether this would affect the diplomatic unity of the Empire. If part of the Empire declined to participate In a. war in which Great Britain was engaged, and the enemy refrained from attacking that part only on condition that it seceded f-om the Empire, whait would be the result? Mr Smiddy considered that the danger of such a. .situation .arising would result in f. no question which might involve war * being acted upon, by Great Britain, -until a complete understanding had been reached by joint deliberations, ,m which self-governing parts of the Empire would have an equal voice. Air Smiddy pictured the day when the Empire would develop into a greater unitv of nations.