NOT OBSOLETE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 190, 13 August 1938, Page 9

NOT OBSOLETE

DOMINIONS OFFICE REPLY TO MR. HUGHES Received August 12, 5.5 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 11. Officials of the Dominion Oflice, replying to the criticism by the Australian Minister of External Affairs, Mr. W. M. Hughes, that the Dominions Oflice is obsolete, point out that they co-ordinate every form of. communication with the Dominions on foreign policy, trade, migration, defence, and on other subjects which are not the province of the Foreign Office. When Mr. Hughes was last in England the Dominions Office did not exist. Since its inauguration in 1925 its work had doubled and it was still increasing, as all the Dominions were fully informed of the latest developments in foreign countries and of British reactions, which officials of the Foreign Office provide and forward to the Dominions Oflice. While admitting that often several hours of delay occur in decoding and deciphering, officials point out that the transfer of their functions to the Foreign Office would not change this. It would still be necessary to have a channel of co-operation with other departments such as is at present provided by the Dominions Office. AgentsGenerals’ complaints were being inquired into. Tn the course of his criticism, Mr. Hughes said that messages about international affairs should go direct from the Foreign Oflice or the Prime Minister of Britain to the Prime Ministers of the Dominions. “At present,” he said, “a delay of a few hours in a message could make the consultation of a Dominion a mere formal courtesy. The Dominions Oflice now acts as a net in which messages are entangled. It has no positive task.” Mr Hughes added that it surely was an anachron- j ism that information received by Do- ! minion Governments lagged hopelessly : behind a Press cable message which i conveyed the same news to all the I I world.