The Daily News TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 1925. A BELATED CHANGE.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 June 1925, Page 6

The Daily News TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 1925. A BELATED CHANGE.

The long-deferred decision of the Home Government to recognise the right of the Dominions to have a separate department devoted to their affairs to accord with their status of grown-up nations and partners in the Empire, which are to be consulted by the Imperial Government, as distinct from the administration and development of the Colonies, for which the Home Government is directly ■ responsible, is now an accomplished fact. Probably there is no country where changes of this sort so slowly evolve as in Britain, where Conservative principles are so firmly rooted that they almost defy interference. The statement made by the Secretary for the Colonies (Mr. L. C. M. S. Amery), when speaking recently at the Corona Club, that the reconstruction of the. Colonial Office was only an outward sign of a process which has been maturing for some time, may be readily accepted, and though arrival at the stage of maturity has been deplorably slow it is none the less an occasion for satisfaction that the desired fruit has put in an appearance. The Daily Express accurately sums up the situation by stating that “the announcement will inspire the great self-govern-ing nations with a new faith and a new hope. They have long ago attained the full Status and stature of nationhood. The Colonial Office has been for generations a grotesquely inaccurate misnomer. The Dominions will naturally expect the new department to be animated by energy

and initiative.” The Dominions will expect far more than that. They will expect that the Minister in charge of the Dominions’ Department will become personally acquainted with the true conditions which exist in each Dominion, and will make periodical visits thereto so as to keep in touch with the partners in the Empire and to thoroughly understand their aims and aspirations, ever keeping in view the need for fostering in every way the spirit of unity that binds the whole Commonwealth of nations constituting the British Empire. A mere change of name of the secretariat and the department will be valueless of itself. What is needed is perfect eo-operation as between principals of equal status, carrying on the same business for the benefit of the Empire. The point emphasised by the Morning Post is most important, namely, that the new departure is an acknowledgment that the old feeling of dependence is justly resented by the Dominions, and has now no justification whatever. During the war, the work of the Imperial War Cabinet showed that it was possible to constitute—without formality, and even against every convention of strict constitutionalism—a temporary executive for the whole Empire, and the first peace meeting of the Dominion. Premiers in London in 1921 will probably be regarded in the future as an occasion when the Government of men was raised a full storey. It was generally considered then, by those quali-: fled to express their views on Imperial that the meeting of the, Imperial Peace Cabinet in June, 1921, would set itself to consider the consequential obligations of equality of nationhood. That meeting placed the coping stone on Dominion nationhood, the full recognition of which is seen to-day in the creation of a separate State Department to be devoted to the paramount interests of the Dominions and the equality of partnership with the head ofMhe Empire. That equality imposes on the Imperial Government the duty of conferring on the Dominions .preferential treatment oyer foreign countries, as well as a moral obligation to foster the trade and commerce of the Dominions by purchasing requirements that the daughter nations can supply. At the same time there is a similar obligation imposed on the Dominions to obtain their requirements from the Motherland, thus giving full scope to the partnership so that the respective interests of all the partners will be advanced and promoted on the .soundest business lines. Given the necessary realisation of what this partnership really means, and a loyal co-operation on the part of all the parties concerned, there should be no difficulty in establishing a complete unify of action for the benefit of the whole. Mr. Amery voiced the opinion that: “We are on the threshold of a great development and expansion of the Colonial Empire.” That being so, we venture to aclvise that no time be wasted by standing on the threshold, but that the edifice be entered boldly and courageously, and a continuous forward policy iof progress maintained.