WESTMINSTER STATUTE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21037, 23 November 1931, Page 9

WESTMINSTER STATUTE

SECOND READING CARRIED. CONSTITUTIONAL LANDMARK. (Received November 22, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 21. In moving the second' reading of the Statute ot Westminster in the House of Commons, the Dominions Secretary, Mr. J. H. Thomas, said the bill represented in terms of law the equality of status of the Empire units. The power of disallowance was recognised by the Legal Conference of 1929 as obsolete and capable of abolition, if desired, subject to one exception affecting trustee securities, which the bill preserved. Arrangements were now being made to obtain concerted action concerning merchant shipping. The Parliaments of the Dominions had expressed their approval of the bill without exception. Mr. Thomas said the bill only gave, effect to a long-established practice but by removing possible grounds for political controversy he hoped it would be a prelude to increased economic co-operation between the various parts of the Empire. It was to be regarded not as the end but rather as the beginning of a system of equal freedom and responsibility among the members of the British Commonwealth in mutual efforts for the common good and for the peace, security and well-being of the world.

The Solicitor-General, Sir Thomas Inskip, said the Irish Free Slate and South Africa were the only two Dominions whose constitutions were framed on the unitary principle. So, if the Irish Free State were inserted in the bill, the same would be necessary in respect of the South African constitution. He emphasised the safeguard in the preamble that all must consent to any alteration of the position of the Crown. He described the bill as a landmark in the constitutional history of the Empire. It was not a hasty draft but the product of mature consideration by representatives of all the members of the Empire. Mr. Winston Churchill, who expressed "not opposition to the bill but words of caution and restraint," was answered by Mr. L. S. Amery, formerly Dominions Secretary, who said the Enjpire could not be held on a basis of legislative supremacy but only by free co-operation. There was nothing in the hill to prevent the building of unity and mutual aid in trade, defence, policy and in research. It was the opening of a chapter On which they should enter with coinage and vision. Sir Stafford Cripps (Socialist—Bristol East), expressed his party's approval of the bill, which was read a second time without division. The correspondent of the Sun-Herald says he learns that the Agents-General for the Australian States agreed to an amendment of the Statute safeguarding the sovereign rights of the States.