Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1926 EQUAL UNDER THE CROWN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 24 November 1926, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1926 EQUAL UNDER THE CROWN

FROM the Report of the inter-imperial Relations Committee of the Premiers Conference there emerges one point which is conspicuously important. The status of the Crown has been greatly enhanced. “Ihe. Dominions, the Report says, “are autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status and in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations.’ That means not only, as has been already recognised in well-informed circles for some years past, that the Crown is the keystone of the Imperial arch, the connecting link which joins all the selfgoverning States of the Enipiic together ; it. means that the governments of those States acknowledge their allegiance to the Crown. Henceforth there is no doubt as to the relationship between His Majesty the King and his Dominions. He is the acknowledged head of South Africa and of the Irish Free State just as emphatically as he is head of New Zealand and of Australia. He is the acknowledged head of the Empire, and to him alone the self-govern-ing States are responsible. If the British Government has lost something of its authority over the Dominions, the Empire as a whole has gained much by this arrangement, since the possibility of friction occurring between any Dominion Government and the. British Government is practically impossible. The Dominion Office of the British Government has lost much of its power. In the future the Dominion Governments will he responsible, not to the Dominion Secretary of the British Government, but directly to the King, through his personal representative in each. Dominion. Tin’s enhances immensely the importance oT Governors and Go-vcrnors-Genernl. Bltt it also simplifies tiie political machinery of the Empire. His Majesty the King is brought, closely into contact with his Dominions, whose allegiance to him is unquestioned, and so an atmosphere of loyalty and goodwill is created throughout the Empire. That is an immense gain. For the first time since the Dominions were created their peoples are able to deal through their governments with the King per medium of his representatives, tlie Governors and Governors-Genernl, who in future will he really the representative of the King and not of the Government at Westminster. This will make Governors and Governors-General exceedingly important personages, for as the status of the King has been increased their own lias been increased proportionately.

Much praise must be given to the British Government for having willingly relinquished its ancient and wise guidance of (he Dominions, hut that guidance really became anomalous when the Dominions signed the Versailles Treaty as separate and integral units of the British Commonwealth of Nations. The British Government, however, is still the premier Government, .in the Empire— prima inter pares —its prestige still stands supreme, W.s authority in the Empire's councils will remain weighty as of yore, not by reason of prerogative but because of that prestige. By relinquishing its prerogative over the Dominions it has gained their increased admiration and regard. Tn this way the Empire has been Unit more closely together, and the possibility of disunion has been removed. Tt will be hard for some foreign nations to understand that, because a political combination such as the British Commonwealth now is, has never existed ij the world before. But how appropriate it is that the British Government —the executive of the Mother of Parliaments—should inaugurate this new system of Imperial union which so strengthens the position ot the British Crown, while in so many European countries the Crown, if not abolished.

is eclipsed by Dictatorships. Thus Ihe British Empire renews itself. Thus it doffs its worn-out vesture, and arrays i(solf in a new garment more suited to its altered character and more serviceable for the work it has to do. Thus the groat Brotherhood of British Nations •renews its strength, and prepares to play the part which Destiny lias marked out for it in the world..