THE COLONIAL OFFICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19394, 31 July 1926, Page 8

THE COLONIAL OFFICE.

The suggestion that the two offices now administered by the Secretary of State for the Colonies and for Dominion Affairs should be separated was bound to come. In making it Mr. Amery has stated the need clearly: the amount of work involved and the growing complexity and importance of both Dominion and Colonial affairs render necessary a division of labour. It was enough in earlier days to have a Colonial Office, with its responsible Parliamentary head in the Cabinet. In those days the Empire's oversea territories were practically as numerous as they are now : the era of colonial expansion had geographically come to a climax and oversight had become regularised. But a new era came when the Dominions, after attaining their majority through experience of representative and responsible government, desired to be treated as partners rather than children. The fear of a Russian attack, which elicited an outburst of generous loyalty from them ; the development of the Union of South Africa after the second Boer War; the amalgamation of the Australian colonies into the Commonwealth; the rapid increase of Canada in population and wealth; these and kindred events all played their part in strengthening the Dominions' claim to acknowledgment that their legal infancy was outgrown. On one hand this meant more scope for self-direction, on the other more scope for a share in directing Imperial policy. Downing Street found itself the centre of a vast organisation wherein the component parts were assuming ever greater importance. Side by side with this development of the Dominions came the progress of the Crown Colonies: no longer mere trading centres, they too claimed political attention. In the critical period of 1914-19 this growth in the Empire's complexity advanced amazingly, and with the close of the w,ar came more definite international responsibilities for the Dominions and new outlooks in the Crown Colonies. All this has added considerably to the work of the Colonial Office. Recently the Minister in charge had his title enlarged to indicate the new importance of the Dominions. In separating the State Secretaryship into two divisions there would be taken a step in keeping with the growing volume of business of the Empire as a going concern, and the need for co-operation between these two divisions in some particulars could be met by ordinary consultative means as well as in 'special Cabinet discussions.