UNITY WITHIN THE EMPIRE

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1928, Page 15

UNITY WITHIN THE EMPIRE

DOMINIONS AS “KINGDOMS” CROWN AND THE GOVERNMENT. VIEWS OF CANADIAN PREMIER. (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, Oct. 11. The Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. W. L. Mackenzie King, in a speech at a Canada Club dinner last night, referred to the representation within and without the Empire) of the Crown and of tho Governments of several national households which comprise the British family. The Governor-General was now regarded both in Britain and in Canada as the personal representative of the King. He was no longer in any way the representative in Canada of the Government of Great Britain, and the distinction had been made apparent by the appointment to Canada within the last few months of Sir William Clarke as representative of His Majesty’s Government in Great Britain. From their point of view this distinction between Crown and Government as separate and distinct entities could not work for other than good. What they had most at heart was the maintenance of BrF rin’s institutions at their best and, above all, their permanency. Under- separate representation of Crown and Government, should differences of any kind between the Governments arise, there would be no possibility of the Crown being involved. As to the representation in England of the Government of Canada, it was now generally recognised that the position of High Commissioner possessed a diplomatic as well as a business character and that the High Commissioner represented the Government of Canada in its many relations with the Government of Britain and in these acted upon the instructions of the Government of Canada, the confidence of which lie possessed to the full.

The opening of the Canadian Lega tion at Washington was little more than an act of formal approval of a course which had become an accepted practice, that of Canadian Minister dealing direct or - through their own specially appointed representatives with the Government of the United States on matters of mutual interest and concern.

Mr. King thought it had become generally recognised to-day that the opening of the Canadian Legation at Washington had strengthened the British position in that capital, that in no particular had it imperilled British unity, but-that rather it had made for British solidarity.

He had just come from witnessing the opening of the Canadian Legation in Paris, the establishment of which, as in Washington, was but the last of the logical steps which had marked the full attainment of self-government by Canada with respect to Canadian interests, whether domestic or external.

What was uppermost in his mind, said Mr. King, in the establishment of such legations was a desire to gain the advantage in international negotiations of diplomatic standing for the representative of Canada’s interests in the L’nited States and France, and to provide means of more effective consultation and co-operation between the British and Canadian Governments on matters in the United States and Fiance which were to them of common interest and concern.