AN EMPIRE MEETING.

Northern Advocate, 31 July 1924, Page 4

AN EMPIRE MEETING.

The decision of the British Government to call a conference to discuss

tixe position of the Dominions in rela- ; t-ion to Imperial foreign policy, will j certainly be welcomed, as Air Thomas said in the House of Commons. The date, however, may not be at all welcome. Mr Thomas has called the conference for October, and it is essentially a conference to be attended by the Prime Ministers. So far as New Zealand is concerned, and we presume the case in Australia is similar, the date is extremely awkward. If Mr Massey is required in London by the end of October he must leave the Dominion well before the end of September, and unless Parliament could carry on without him that would mean a very short session. It is" five weeks since the members gathered in Wellington, and nothing has been done yet beyond the presentation of the Financial Statement and the utterance of a flood of tvords. To complete the work of the session in another six weeks would bo impossible; an early closing would mean that veiy little could be done. We do not suppose that the Prime Minister is at all anxious to make another journey to London so soon after the recent Imperial Conference, but he would, no doubt, be willing to undertake the duty later in the year. Probably a meeting early in the new year would suit most of the Dominions better than the time now suggested by Mr Thomas is likely to do. That a conference is necessary admits of no argument. In connection with the present Inter-Allied Conference in London there has been very considerable j difficulty over the position of the Dominions, and the questions at issue have not been decided, a more or less satisfactory compromise having been adopted as a temporary expedient. The impromptu solution of the problem that was found a few weeks ago is not, Mr Thomas has declared, to be taken as a precedent. A permanent solution must be devised, and that can only be done by means of a thoroughly reprsentative gathering of the Empire's leaders. The Versailles Peace Conference is the great precedent for recognition of the international status of the Dominions, but the Washington Conference and the present London Conference have shown that this precedent cannot be followed in every instance. In connection with the gathering now in session Britain i has had to bow to the will of the United States, which refuses to attend conferences at which the British Empire can outvote her. The Dominions j fortunately have deemed it wise to ac- | cept a compromise; even Canada, the great stickler for international rights, has given away, though sue had previously laid down the principle that I attendance at a conference must carry I the right to a separate vote. At the present moment, of course, it is more important to Britain and the world generally to obtain American co-opera-tion than it is to secure the assent of the Dominions to the final attempt to settle with Germany. The whole Empire clearly tecognises that there can be no permanent authority in the Peace Treaty without the support of the United States. After all, the supreme desire and interest of the Dominions is the peace and wfllbeing of the world,, and it is better to agree to the imperfect panel system of representation at the present Inter-Allied Conference than to jeopardise its fair prospects. Meanwhile Britain takes control. As Mr Mac Donald advisedly said in the House of Commons, the arrangement has been agreed to "without prejudice." But the British Empire must devise a means of putting its sectional representation '.ipon a proper basi?. A conference is needed at which the rights and privileges of the Dominions can be j clearly defined. It will be a conferI ence of the gravest import whenever 1 it is held, for with their privileges the Dominions must also accept responsibilities, and those responsibilities will necessarily bo conccrned with the defence of the Empire. The proposed British Empire Conference evidently is not a project that can be rushed. Its business will need careful preparation, and in order that adequate time may be given, and the affairs of the Dominions

may not be too much upset, a later date than October will probably be found to be suitable.