Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1925 THE DOMINIONS’ DEPARTMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 15 June 1925, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1925 THE DOMINIONS’ DEPARTMENT

THE creation of a Department of the Dominions, which shall be a connecting link between the self-governing of the Empire overseas and the British Government, meets with general approval. That the Colonial Office should have continued to act as that connecting link so long after the Dominions were created, is cause for wonder, seeing that tho Colonial Office had so frequently and so signally proved, traditionally and executively. its extraordinary ineptitude in dealing with the self-governing Colonies. One instance will suffice. When, after ibe first Boer War, the relations between the Dutch elements in South Africa and the British Government were anything but cordial, and" the opening up of the Rand mines was causing an influx of Britishers which was increasing the friction between the Boers of the Transvaal and the British Government, tiie- Colonial Office sent out to South Africa one of its most experienced officials—a gentleman who had been in its service for thirty years —to study the situation and report. Ho arrived at Capetown and spent nearly six months in the country, visiting all the principal towns of Capo Colony, Kimlierly, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Maritv.burg, and Durban. He conferred with all tho

leading politicians, including Paul Kruger, President of tho Transvaal. When he got back to England he made his report. He failed to see the terrible political storm which was brewing, he failed to see the inevitable clash between. the mining elements at Johannesburg and the Transvaal Government. He seemed to think that the cure for the ills oi South Africa was to be found in bringing about Imperial Federation, and to that end he recommended that “a statesman of the first order of talent, patience, and truthfulness, irrespective ot politics or prejudice” who should act ns a buffer between the British Government and the politicians of South Africa, and, apparently, inculcate the doctrines of Imperial Federation, should be sent out to South Africa. We know what happened —the Jameson Raid. Subsequently Lord Milner was sent out as a sort of commissioner, in the capacity indicated above, and the second Roer War followed as a natural sequel. It is to he believed that the new Department will start with traditions very differentfrom those of the Colonial Office; that it. will treat the Dominions as in the broadest sense self-governing Stales subservient only to the Crown; and that in the future the affairs of the Dominions, so far as they concern the British Government, will be dealt with much more ably, because they will he handled by officials who will possess a dose knowledge of the Dominions with which they will be intimatelv in touch.