FIRST TIME IN HISTORY

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 28 March 1935, Page 5

FIRST TIME IN HISTORY

West Australian Petition to Secede From Commonwealth COMMITTEE CONSIDERATION ABSENCE OF CEREMONIAL t United Press Association —Bj Electric Telegraph CcpyngnLj. Received 11 a.m. to-day. LONDON, March 27.

In the King’s lofty robing room in the House or Lords, a meeting was held of the joint select {committee which will decide whether West Australia’s petition to secede from the Commonwealth is properly receivable by the Imperial Government. It is the first time in history of tlie British Empire that a State has sought to secede from the jurisdiction of a larger member. There was an entire absence of ceremonial when the committee took thei-' places. Counsel were arrayed in wig and gown, but. the others were in 'street dress, c The Hon. R. Linton. Agent-General for Victoria, and Hon. R...G. Menzies, K.C., Attorney-General for the Commonwealth, and secession delegates were among a small group that listened to Professor Morgan in his opening address for the secessionists.

In opening the proceedings the president said the committee had decided to keep within the four corners of their reference, namely, to report whether the petition was proper to be received, and not deal with the merits of the case.

Professor Morgan, opening Western Australia’s case, said the Imperial Parliament alone had power to grant the petitioners the relief they asked. Western Australia was determined to secede and obtain a responsible Government for themselves as a self-governing Dominion, liberated from what was . regarded as not only political subjection, but also economic suppression, under the Commonwealth Government. Their determination to secede was not transient or petulant, nor was it a mere party move. It was a determination accepted by all political parties in Western Australia as expressing the will of the people. Western Australia had not sought a path of rebellion, but had shown an almost passionate loyalty, not only to the crown, hut also to the rest or the Commonwealth. He declared there was really no limitation upon the Imperial Parliament’s power to receive the petitions. The historic basis of the right of petition was that Parliament would always entertain petitions ‘"'here no other means of redress was available.