A WELCOME CHANGE

Northern Advocate, 23 June 1925, Page 4

A WELCOME CHANGE

The reorganisation o£ the British Colonial Office which was recently announced has "been warmly welcomed in all the Dominions, for it will enable the' responsible British Minister to associate himself more closely with overseas interests than he has done in the past. One important feature of the new arrangement is that it will probably facilitate occasional visits to Ibe Dominions by the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs. Since he assumed his new office Mr Amery has indicated that he hopes to visit the Dominions to deal at first hand with matters of interest, and our own Prime Minister has made it clear that he regards such visits as' highly desirable. Other considerations apart, there is no doubt that the occasional presence in the Dominions of a responsible representative of the British Government would stimulate public interest in affairs of Imperial concern, and would tend to quicken in these countries a demand for the development of a more effective m&ehinery of Imperial consultation. There is, of course,, no question of any British Minister attempting to dictate a policy to the Dominions. Visits by such a Minister would, however, give prominence to questions of inter-Imperial relationship which meantime are receiving much less attention, "here and in other Dominions, than their practical importance demands. A stage clearly is being approached at which it will no longer be possible for the people of anj r Dominion to be content with conditions in which there is little more than nominal consultation between their own Government and that of Great Britain on vital of common concern.