STATUS OF DOMINIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19959, 30 May 1928, Page 11

STATUS OF DOMINIONS.

DISCUSSION IN CANADA. DEMAND FOR EQUALITY. POLITICIANS NOT SATISFIED. Australia Press Association—United Service (Received May 29, 11.5 p.m.) OTTAWA. May 28. The whole question of Imperial relations was raised in the Canadian House of Commons to-day. Mr. Henri Bourassa, an Independent member, moved an amendment to the motion for supply for the Department of External Affairs. This expressed regret that proper steps had not been taken to give full effect, both in domestic and in external affairs, to the equality of status acknowledged by the last Imperial Conference to be a fundamental principle of the relations between the self-governing British Dominions. Mr. Bourassa laid stress on the importance of not assuming moral obligations in international affairs. ; The Prime Minister, Mr. W. L. Mackenzie King, held that experience since the Imperial Conference had served to show that the course taken at that conference was a proper one. The Leader of the Conservative Opposition, Mr. H. B. Bennett, said ho thought " equality of status " was a high-sounding term which did not properly represent the situation. There could not be equality unless a Dominion had the right to make peace or declare war, also the right to amend its own constitution.