The Wanganui Herald. (Published Daily.) MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1920. AN IMPERIAL CABINET.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160795, 1 November 1920, Page 8

The Wanganui Herald. (Published Daily.) MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1920. AN IMPERIAL CABINET.

The formation* of an Imperial Cabinet, representative of the Empire, has been discussed both at Home and in the Dominions, and a recent cable states that Mr Lloyd George considers such a Cabinet an imperative necessity. How opinions have changed during the past few years! When Sir Joseph Ward, with characteristic far-seeing statesmanship, submitted a proposal to the Imperial Conference in 1911. for a representative Imperial Parliament or Council, the then Prime Minister of Britain (Mr Asquith) said: "For what does Sir Joseph Ward’s proposal come to? I might describe the effect of it in a couple of sentences. It might impair, if not altogether destroy the authority of the Government of the United Kingdom In such grave matters as the . conduct of foreign policy, the conclusion of treaties, and declaration and maintenance of peace, or the declaration of war, and indeed all those relations with Foreign Powers necessarily of the most delicate character, which are now in the hands of the Imperial Government, subject to its responsibility to the Imperial Parliament. That authority cannot be shared, and the co-existence side by side with the Cabinet of the United Kingdom and the proposed body. It does not matter by what name you call It for the moment, clothed with the functions and the jurisdiction which Sir Jospeh Ward proposes to invest it with, would In our judgment be absolutely fatal to our present system of responsible government.” Those words were uttered before the unifying needs of the Great War Impressed themselves boon the nation’s leaders, and time has proved that Sir Joseph Ward had a much clearer vision of the Empire’s needs than was possessed by Mr Asquith and many of the Old Land's politicians and statesmen. One of the latter who was subsequently compelled to recognise the justice and wisdom of Sir Joseph’s plea was Mr Bonar Law, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, who said: “As a result of war a time will come when the whole of the self-governing Dominions, in proportion to their population and resources, will share with the Mother Country in the debt and honour of 'governing the, British Empire.” That was spoken after the war commenced, and several years after Sir Joseph Ward had moved the motion at the Imperial Conference which Mr Asquith condemned. we have Mr Lloyd George regarding as a necessity the , formation of a Cabinet 1 representative of the Empire.