The Hawera Star. TUESDAY, JUNE, 10, 1926. KEEPING TOUCH.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 15 June 1926, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

TUESDAY, JUNE, 10, 1926. KEEPING TOUCH.

Delivered every evening by 5 o’clock iu Hawers. Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, EltbamJ Mangatold, Kaponga, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Wavertey, JJokoia, Wbakamara, Ohangai, Meremere. Fraser Hoad and Ararata.

The creation of a special Imperial Affairs Department of the British Foreign Office, announced in our cables yesSterday, will not solve the problem of Empire foreign policy; but, efficiently conducted, it should keep that problem rather more in the background than it has been for the last year or two. The new move means, or .is intended to mean, that the Prime Ministers of the several Dominions will be kept in daily touch with the, business of the Foreign Office, and, presumably, that they will be permitted to offer suggestions on any of the matters under consideration which may he of particular importance to their own countries. This is far from being a revolutionary development. Practically ever since the war—which, it is agreed, gave a new Imperial status to the Dominions —our. Prime Ministers have been kept advised of major decisions by the Foreign Office, and at times progress reports of negotiations have been supplied. But this has been hitherto by special act of consideration on the part of the Secretary of Stntq for Foreign Affairs, or, of the British Prime Minister. Under the new arrangement, Dominion Governments will be kept advised of minor as well as major decisions, and they will receive such advice every day and by right rather than favour. It is too much to hope t)iat Mr. Coates, for instance, will know as much, as Mr Baldwin on Sir Austen Chamberlain, for the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister at Home are party to personal negotiations which oftentimes precede the passing of documents through the Foreign Office; and, beyond this, there will be certain secrets of State which it would he most unwise to trust to the cables*, even in the closest code. But the new; scheme should help to satisfy those critics, more particularly in Canada, who have objected to the former system,, whereby Britain attended to the family’s foreign business without consulting her daughters. So far as there is to bo an Empire foreign policy —and When there is such no longer the Empire will be near to its fall —Britain must have chief hand in it, both because she, is the Mother Country and because of her ; position as a European Power. But the Dominions have now reached an age and a position of importance to warrant them asking that they shall be advised of the family affairs, and be consulted when anything partciularly touching their interests is proposed. The Imperial Affairs Department is to supply that advice, and it will offer improved .facilities for the, supporting consultation.