IN EVENT OF WAR

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 359, 16 September 1933, Page 5

IN EVENT OF WAR

Position of Empire Countries COULD SOME BE NEUTRAL? Matter Referred to Committee of Lawyers Press Association. —Oonyright. Toronto, Sept. 14. Can a king be at war and at peace at the same time? That was one of the questions aired by the British Empire Relations conference to-day. Some delegates took the view that completely self-governing nations of the Empire had really resolved -themselves into six separate and independent kingdoms with a common sovereign, and that the King's acts as King of Canada need have no relationship to his acts as King of the United Kingdom or of Australia. Another group contended that there was ground for holding that no part of the Empire could enter into a war without such action being recommended to the King by the Ministers of all the different Governments. This view, if adopted, would make unnecessary consideration of the possibility of one part of the Empire remaining neutral while , another was at war.

Thare was general agreement by the delegates that consultation and co-opera-tion were desirable in the Empire's internal relations. It was stressed that consultation should be directed to the preservation of peace to a greater extent than to talk of war. The conference referred the matter to a committee of lawyers for a report.