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Hokitika Guardian, 10 March 1939, Page 4

A challenge to traditional beliefs about the British Commonwealth is discuslsed by Lord Lothian in an article on “The Future of the Empire,” published in the Spectator. .“It is that liberty has been carried so far,” lie'states, “that a balancing movement, on the one hand stressing the obligation to service on all citizens, and on the other requiring unizy or integration between the autonomous nations, is imperative,' if liberty itself and democracy are to survive. It is now quite clear that it is impossible for Europe to reach either prosperity or stable , peace so long as it is divided into 25 sovereign Statns, each with an army, an air force, an insurmountable tariff and a foreign policy of its own. National autonomy is sound enough, but it must be balanced by some form of unity or federation, if Europe is not to be utterly destroyed by anarchy. Again, what future is there for the British Commonwealth if, in addition to Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, India, Ceylon, Burma, Newfoundland, Jamaica, Trinidad, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanganyika and a dozen other territories all attain to full Dominion status and are entitled to foreign policies, armies and ai r forces, and high tariffs of their own ? The Commonwealtli will then have become an anarchy of 20 to 30 sovereignties only united by, allegiance to a nonpolitical Throne. Indeed, it is possible to go further and ask whether it is not certain, in this age of aerial navigation and radio, that so long as the world as a whole remains divided into more than 70 sovereign States it will pay the price in chronic poverty, revolution and war.”