DOMINIONS’ STATUS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 18 May 1926, Page 5

DOMINIONS’ STATUS

FULL INDEPENDENCE. URGED BY MR HERTZOG ONLY LINK TO BRITAIN BY CABLE—PEESS ASSOCIATION—COPYBIGHT. CAPETOWN, May 16. The* Prime Minister (Mr Hertzog), in* an important -pronouncement regarding Dominion status, maintained that the Dominions had never received the full international independence to which they were entitled under the grant of self-government, but v e-i e always subordinate- to the British- Government until the -signing of the \eisailles Treaty, w-heu their international independence was recognised. Even after that, however, the Dominions hesitated to put their new status to practical test, owing to the fear that disruption* of the Empire- would follow > and* accordingly compromised by creating the doctrine of group unity, under which the British Empire was to take decisions on matters of foreign policy as a unanimous group, not as a number of separate entities. Mr Hertzog declared: that this utterly failed in practice, pointing to the Locarno Pact, at which the Dominions were not properly represented, and the British Government had! gone on its own way without consulting the Dominions. The Prime Minister expressed gratification at Britan’s attitude towards the Locarno agreement, which meanther rejection of the group unity idea as lie in g not feasible in practice, and enabled the Dominions to get- hack to a- sound basis by returning to the. 1 Versailles Treaty and claiming the international independence accorded them by that treaty. ‘ Concluding. Mr Hertzog affirmed that the -only link between the Dominions and Britain was the personal bond of a common king, but in their own interests international independence would* mean closer -and more cordial co-operation in order to- obtain full international effect. However, something more was required than mere declaration of constitutional rights among themselves; that dedaration would have to he communicated formally by them to the outside world.