AN IMPERIAL ASSEMBLY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 57, 16 June 1910, Page 5

AN IMPERIAL ASSEMBLY

EXISTING BRITISH PARLIAMENT IMPOSSIBLE. EQUALITY OF POLITICAL STATES ESSENTIAL. By Cable —Press Association —Copyright. Received June 16, 12.50 a.m. London, June 15. Mr. L. C. Amery, addressing the Colonial Institute, said the system of Imperial Government, 'based on the supremacy of the United Kingdom, cannot- last. A single foreign defence policy, with a single responsible administration, was essential. It was impossible to utilise the existing Parliament for the formation of an Imperial Assembly, as it was contrary to the principle of equality of political status upon which the dominions insist as a condition of any form of union.

An Imperial conference was possible as the nucleus of an Imperial Parliament. The supreme importance of the conference as the highest assembly should be recognised by vesting the King' as formal president. If each Dominion Cabinet included a special minister for Imperial external affairs, a similar Australian conference might meet annually. It would not become a true Imperial Parliament until a definite constitutional Act placed Imperial administration under its control, and resolutions bound the whole Empire. Mr. W. Pember Reeves advocated that representatives of the dominions in London should have the right of soeeeh in the House of Commons "or the House of Lords.

Lord Milner emphasised the apparent reaction after a great demonstration of the spirit of co-operation, manifested in the South African war. A great opportunity was lost when South African affairs were allowed to relapsfe into merely colonial interest by being handed to the British Parliament.