EMPIRE' GOVERNMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17593, 5 October 1920, Page 4

EMPIRE' GOVERNMENT.

Though Mr. Massey has given New 'Zealand no information on the subject, it is well understood that the Dominion Prime Ministers are to meet in London next year. Mr. Hughes has announced definitely that he is going to the conference, and newspaper cablegrams have

stated that the meeting is to take place in June. It will be a gathering of far-reaching importanceEvidently it is not the intention to decide upon constitutional changes until 1922, but next year's conference will at least provide material for discussion in Britain and the Dominions on the new basis of Empire government. On such a

latter enlightened discussion is ssential to a wise decision. It is easy to declare that the Dominions have won their nationhood and that henceforth they must have a voice in the foreign policy of the Empire, hut it is not so easy to so mould our Constitution as to effectively give them that voice, and at the same time ensure that in times of crisis the Empire will speak with only one voice. That is the problem which the conference of Prime Ministers has to face, and it is not simplified by a tendency becoming apparent in some of the Dominions to over-emphasise their rights, and to hasten the impending change. In that respect New Zealand's political leaders have shown a praiseworthy moderation. The trend of thought in New Zealand runs unmistakably in the direction of making Empire unity secure and beyond challenge, even if the full exercise of Dominion rights has to be postponed until the new structure of the Empire has stood the test of experience. There [will be impatient delegates at the conference table taking the other view, and urging experimental methods of government, which, however attractive in theory, may not in practice fit the British temperament. It will be well for the Empire that in this matter we should hasten slowly, and New Zealand will expect its delegate to/use his voice and vote to that end.