The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 1919. DOMINIONS AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVIII, Issue 16884, 4 August 1919, Page 6

The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 1919. DOMINIONS AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS.

A subject which must liaTe beera very far from clear in the rainda o£ many people throughout rUJ Empire is discussed in the la te <tJ number of the ''Hound Table"' ia| sin. article called "The League or Nations and the British Commo.iwealth.' -3 At first sight it appear that the constitution arranged in Paris, which makes the dominions separate independ-J ent members of the League on Nations, was in opposition tc | that movement towards closer co j operation, if not federation, Ik ' tween the Empire's parts, whitseems the natural tendency fo the future. It mis-lit be though also that, as each of them will have one vote in the Assembly of I the League, the same as the Great [Powers, ,an influence out of ail j prcnortion to their size was being ! gi r en to the dominions. The article in the ''Bound Table" shows that the relationship of the Empire's parts to one another is not affected by the League's Covenant and that the influence which dominions will be able to exert on the actual decisions of the League will not be much more | than the influence they'will have | through the British representa--1 tive, who in the last resort will not be resDonsible to them but to the British Parliament for the manner in which his vote is cast. The article shows also, what cannot be too steadfastly remembered, that their inclusion in the League of Nations means not only recognition and honour for the dominions. It is fraught also with the most serious responsibilities.

It is not by tlie Assembly oi the League, representng all it? members, but bv its Council, that the League's policy will be deteiv mined and imi>ortant decision 3 made. The Assembly -will bfi mucli too large and mixed a body to do more than advise the Council and ratify the decisions formed by it. The Peace Treaty iteell was intended to be made by a Conference of seventv delegates. In practice it was found so ho]>eless to get anything done in such a large assembly "that even the proposal to reduce it to a Council of Twenty-five, composed of five representatives of each of Great Powers, was never acted! on, and the Council by which ad decisions were made was a CouuJ cil composed of the Prime Atinis ters only of the three chief Euro-j pean Powers and President "Wilson. The Japanese Prime Minister might have been included! but the detailed reorganisation oi Europe did not. interest Japan, All the other delegates did no more than prepare reports, hear eA-idence, and advise the *'J3iy Tour," whose monopoly of executive functions was not merely the only practicable course, but al.-u! | in a rough way, the fairest, n; ainong them they represented . greater population tlian all th' 1 others combined. ; If a limited .Council had to do all the trui.y decisive work for the Peace Conference the position must, bo the same with the League of Nations! and it is : a weakness of the League's Council that no real representation- is afforded by it ic the smaller nations. The Covenant" provides that, the Council shall consist of five representatives altogether of the five chiei Powers, with four representatives for all the smaller nations, to be elected by the complete Assembly. It is plain, however, that a Belgian, a Brazilian, a Greek and a Spaniai'd who might be elected for the nuroose cannot really represent New Zealand and Atistralia, or even the other European and American small Stales whom the League must include tr the number <>f several score. The 1 ."Rn" T "* Jabl"" writer makes it

plain that no British domiuion is likely for one moment to be Reeled u.s a represent alive ol the smaller Powers. "So long' as the two KTuat Anfvlo-Saxoa (Jomnioiiwcalths occivpv by rig'lit scats cm the Council, ike minor States will never vgvco to accord an additional place to otlier communities of the same stock." But tliat point is not of much import-c-uice, since nothing- is more rjeritain than that the real decisions of the League of Nations will be made by the Big- Four or Big l'ive, the function of the other parties being' merely advisory or confirmatory. Even so, the "Round Table" writer believes with reason that if the representatives of the big' Powers are responsible Ministers of their,. Governments, wh'o Avi.ll meet regularly, as the Entente's Prime Ministers met during' the war, to watch, foreign relationships, check causes of contention •as they threaten, and revise treaties as time modifies l the conditions under whicli they were framed, the newLeague will rank as "the most important reform ever made at one stroke in hivman affairs." In this writer's view, ' which seems to _be unchallengeable, of the dominions' place in the [League, no room is o-iven for the t'jmplaints that are being made I-y ex-President Taft and others P' . the British Empire's .overt presentation in it. The doniin■as can only be directly repreButed under a federal system for Mm Empire which would make

ke Uritish. representative responsible to a general Parliament, for ■lie control of foreign affairs, instead pf to the British ParliaIment. Or the indirect control .which is assured to them can be increased by every new provision Lhat is made for more', constant "communication, with a view to 'more effective co-operation, between Uritish and dominion statesmen. The problem of the Empire's government stands- exactly where it did before. But the League of _ Nations nrust involve _ responsibilities for the dominions, as well as for the United States and other Powers. jßy article 10 of the Covenant 'each dominion is to "undertake Uo respect and preserve as against External aggression the territorial Gntegnty and existing political tndenendence of all the members bf the League." If the Germans Inake a new unnrovoked attack on France it will not be at our dis-" nretion to assist in repelling it We> shall be committed from befcohand to that course. "The ■jovement of hostile forces across ■Thy frontier in Europe will compmt them (the dominions) to war LThe whole state of Europe befcg'mes their daily and hourly conFern." The new internationalism requires that every man shall ■e prepared to be his brother's peeper. r And though the prospect may seem formidable, no internationalism worth the name fcyor rested, or could rest, on a Bifferent basis.