A NEW CONCEPTION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16208, 4 December 1926, Page 5

A NEW CONCEPTION

OF IMPERIAL UNITY MR. BRUCE’S EULOGY (Australian and N.Z. Cablo Association.! LONDON, Dee. 3. “Future generations may look back upon 1926 as a- year in which the Empire definitely emerged from the difficult stage of its growth, and filially accepted a new conception of itself as a free partnership of genuinely equal nations, which came to birth in the storm and stress of war.” The Commonwealth Premier, Mr. S. M. Bruce, with these words, concludes an article in the English Review on the conference and Dominion status. Mr. Bruce argues that the period of uncertainty after the war might have been foreseen. It was implicit in the nature of the Empire from the moment when the Dominions wore accorded self-government. The distinction between self-government in the domestic sphere and in the nursery government, in the sphere of foreign politics, was very well for o time, but could not last.

“It seems to me the only real sub- : stantial question, which the conferj once had to settle, was whether the 1 will to unity throughout the Empire had, or had not, been impaired by the events and experiences of the past 12 years. It may be said that the resolutions merely clarified the position which existed all along, but there was no such general agreement about Ihe political situation of the Empire as it existed to-day now that the work of clarification had been clone. We had to establish clearly the fact of the Dominions’ full automonv, in respect of every issue raised, and do it on the basis of leaving the essential unity of the British Commonwealth in every wise unimpaired. I think both these tasks were accomplished. The great watch-words, liberty, equality and unity, have been freely and unmistakably accepted. Their application in detail has gone quite as far as the needs of our time demands, without leading to that kind of over-rigid definiteness which may, i itself, easily prove the stumbling j 1 dock. We have cleared up the political situation of the Empire, and know where we stand as an Empire. Each part can rely upon everyone’s genuine belief in the Imperial union. Each knows this close union does not imply derogation from the sovereign l status. We have now brought about | the tightening of the bonds of comI mon interest and sentiment, in order j that they may withstand the unforeseen shocks of time and cireumj stances. In this way they may endure for centuries.”