THE EMPIRE

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 6 May 1921, Page 8

THE EMPIRE

PLACE OF THE-DOMINIONS. *

DISCUSSED BY THE CANADIAN

PREMIER

BY CABLE—PRESS AaowuiATION—COPYRIGHT

Received May fi, 9.30 a.m.

LONDON, May 5. Mr. Meighen, the Canadian Premier, has an article in the Manchester Guardian on "The Place of the Dominions in the Empire." He says that the relations between the constituent parts of the Empire must be based on complete freedom and equality of national status. He admits that'it is "questionable whether the Dominions have arrived at that status, and suggests that this be left to the consideration of the Imperial Constitutional Conference proposed* by the Imperial War Conference in 1917. Participation in that conference would not necessarily mean the erection of new mechanisms of government. Mr. Meighen is afraid that such mechanisms would imply centralisation, which he refuses to regard seriously' because unpractical and directly counter to the principles jipon which the Dominions exist. Similarly the Dominions' participation in foreign policy was a matter for arrangement rather than mechanism. Nevertheless, as the Do--1 minions occupy different continents, Imperial foreign- policy would be unacceptable if it concerned the predominant interests only of one continent.