OUR EMPIRE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2838, 1 August 1916, Page 7

OUR EMPIRE

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE WHAT CONSTITUTION? A NEW UNION SUGGESTED Mr. Lionel Curtis, one of tha Readers ;of the "Round Table" Magazine, addressed tho New Zealand Club yesterday p.on tho subject of the future of the British Empire., Mr;' Curtis said that, he had decided to tell the story of the "Round Table" Groups because it was in Wellington that that movement had Arst taken root 6ix years ago. The original ■ impetus of the movement, however, 'was to be found in the circumstances attending the Union of South Africa, which was finally consummated in the year 1910. That movement was largely initiated by a small seotion of the British population in South Africa.. After the war the Transvaal and Orange Free State were organised as , Crown colonies under the Government of the High missioner of South Africa. Even before the war had closed a number of difficult and delioate-questions had begun to arise between. Cape Colony and Natal, the Transvaal and Orange Free State. J Each of these colonies had separate tariffs. More difficult etill ,was the question of railway rates. It lay within the power of the Transvaal Government to , determine _ by : \.adjusting : the railway. charges how muoh of the large carrying trade from'the coast'to the' Wit■watererand mines. passed through the ports of Cape of Natal, or the Portuguese port of Delogoa Bay. No sooner had peace been signed than the four colonies' found themselves at daggers drawn over [ these : and many other, joints in dispute. So long, however, as the Transvaal and • Orange River Colony continued.to be governed as Crown colonies, the quarrel wa9 prevented from coming to an open rupture, merely by. the authority of the High Commissioner.Lord Milner and Lord Selborne governed the'new colonies, and were able to 'grant concessions to Cape Colony and Natal, such as no Prime Minister who depended for office on the votes of the people of the Transvaal conld; possibly have made. For .five years the latent dissensions of :Bouth Africa we're in this way suppressed. In 1906 a new Government came into power in England, and decided to establish a responsible Government in the Transvaal and-Free State forthwith. From the outset the speaker, together - with the majority of British people in South; Africa, had thought that the time had arrived when this change was essential, and everything which had since happened had gone to confirm that view. In the Transvaal, Crown colony government had. ceased to be possible. There was no difficulty in governing the Boers, but the real difficulty was in governing the British.themselves. If was no more possible for a benevolent autocrat, representing Downing Street, to control Johannesburg than it would be forfei to oontrol Sydney or Melbourne. Ibtill, no one could doubt that under popular government tho four colonies of South Africa would once more be at each other's throats, and South Africa js-a country in which disputes are apt' to pass in. the twinkling of an eye. from bitter words to bullets. c ■-.;'■■-. "That Indefinable Thing." '• Thus, with the establishment of popular government in the inland colonies: before them, thoughtful South Africans': round themselves faced with a sudden recrudescence of that indefinable thing rnown as the "South African Problem." borne of them determined, therefore, to : ■ study that problem, and they found that the South African problem arose—not from the conflict of two races, but "from the conflict-of four separate States. In wactice, South Africa would continue to : nfler from political paralysis until there fere established one government responible to the majority,of the South African topple, and competent to settle all questions at issue between any two or more sections or localities in South -Africa. Here, then,,was;, -the ...-'diagnosis, which pointed to the cure, a cure which could only be effected by. the establishment of one.i National Government throughout South Africa, which would place it on the same footing as that already achieved in Canada, Australia) or New Zealand. •'At the very moment when the Union of South Africa came into, sight as a practical question, Sir Edward Grey, after three years' experience as Foreign Minister, was convinced that Germany, was compassing the destruction of the whole Commonwealth. In public speeches he warned the people of the danger, forced his own Government , to abandon the policy of disarmament, , to add eight Dreadnoughts to their naval estimates, and to summon- tho Dominion Governments to tho (Defence Conference, which _was' held in IOOp. The South Africans knew that on the Union, the Government of South Africa was certain to be controlled by the Boer generals, and .provided that the. men in control were General Botha and General Smuts, they wero prepared to take.tho risk; tut the very real possibility had to' be.faced that the generals in control might be Hertzog and Beyers; and in that event they were under.no illusion as to what would hap- ■ pen.; In the event of war, they knew perfectly well that men like that would proclaim the neutrality of South Africa, which, in plain words, must'mean independence. -. "Must be Sifted to the Bottom." They had preached the doctrine that a British-citizen in South Africa must enjoy exactly the same control of all public ; affairs as a'British citizen in the .United Kingdom. As a British citizen in the United Kingdom . they had. by their votes controlled tho Government responsible for the issues of peace and war. As-British citizens even in the United South Africa they had no control whatever of , any: Ministers who handled the issues of- peace and war unless or until the South African Minis: ters declared their independence of the Imperial Government; and by that de-' claration they, as South Africans, would lose their status once for all as British citizens. Here was a' question which they felt must, be sifted to tho bottom; and. in 1909 three, of them went to Canada to inquire what was the view of people in the oldest and most experienced of the .Dominions on this momentous problem. Of these three'men ,one.'was a "New Zealander, Mr. W.- S. Marris,. one of the ablest men ever produced by this country, who had been lent by the Indian Government to reorganise the Transvaal Civil Service. Both in Canada and in England they received the same answer' , to their inquiries: "The British iEmpire was one and indivisible. The sun never set ou it, and never would set It consisted," however,, of five of six autonomous, sovereign, and co-equal States." To the question how the foreign policy of these separate States was to be eonducted, tho same answer was always given: that it was to be conducted by co-operation.' With this answer they returned to South Africa to analyse tho position as represented to them. They •were driven to the conclusion that the position as represented to them in Canada and England did not conform witli the actual facts. In reality, the foreign policy of the whole British Commonwealth was conducted in London by Ministers responsible only to the electorate of the United Kingdom. The issues of peace and war rested in their hands, and m theirs alone;, and, if the policy of British Ministers resulted in war, Dominion Ministers could only evade that war by a declaration ■ of independence; Dominion Ministors had no control whatever of the trend of events which led to a state of war or to the continuance of peace, for they neither had nor attempted to have any relation with foreign Governments. So far as peace and war, the first of all public interests, was ' concerned, the people of the Dominions had no more controlled their own' destiny than those of India or Fiji. They were not, in fact, self-governing States, but dependencies. But to anyone who had visited tho great Dominion of Canada it was perfectly plain that those conditions could not continue for many years longer. They wero driven to the conclusion that tho time was at hand when the people of Canada would by force of circumstances acquire the same control of foreign affairs as that exercised by the people of the United Kingdom, or bv the people of the United States. That position they were con*inced would be' reflected not only; in

South Africa, but in all the self-govern-ing Dominions of the British Commonwealth. They did not believe that tho people of those Dominions could continue without acquiring a full and final control of all public affairs. A Visit to Wellington. These conclusions were 60 contrary to current Imperial doctrines, so startling and so unpalatable, Mr. Curtis was asked to visit these Dominions. Ho arrived in Wellington in July, 1910, and submitted the case to • men connected with the University here. They decided to form a 6mall group, partly of University ' men, and partly of business, men, to study the problem in collaboration with the South Africans, who submitted | the memorandum. They further decided that their work must be done, not with any secrecy, but in private; for it was impossible to conduct &' general inquiry into a burning political problem in an atmosphere of public controversy. The Wellington group recommended the creation of further groups in Christchurch, Dunedin, Wanganui, and Auckland. Such groups were quickly called into existence, and on their invitation others were established in AustraliaBrisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth; and subsequently Canada. Finally, groups came into existence in Tndia, and in various parts of the United Kingdom. All these groups, after con. sideling the South African memorandum, Bent in their criticisms to Mr. Curtis, Ivho acted'as a kind of general secretary, with the assistance of Mr. John Allen, son of the New Zealand Minister of Defence. This-mass of criticism from all the "Round Table" groups was printed, Indexed, and circulated to all the mem. hers. With this material before him, the general secretary prepared a report on ,the whole Imperial problem, which, as it was prepared, was printed and 6ub. mitted in instalments to the groups, for their criticism. It was apparent that any report which would deal with the subject in all its aspects would be a for, midable document, and would cover more than thTee large printed documents. Tha first volume was completed before the outbreak of. war, and will be published shortly, under the title of "Tho Common, irealthof Nationa," ( . WKen War Broke' Out. When war-broke out it was obvious that the.moment peace returned tho. question of how the peoples of the ; Do.' minions were to control the issues o( peace and war would become acute. Tho views he expressed in "The Problom of the Commonwealth" then began to be im, puted to the "Round Table" as 6uch. Now, the "Round Table" groups were a student organisation, and were no mora capablo of formulating and uttering a. policy than the New Zealand Club or the; Workere' Educational Association. As the'only way out of the difficulty the speaker had, therefore, been urged by the members,of the "Round Table" groups to publish a book on his own authority, and under his own .uame.-.Ho had, therefore, decided to accept this responsibility, but, before doing so, re. wrote the book in the light of such oriticisms as had readied lmn from the groups.- ~ New 'Zealand, Mr: Curtis continued, was committed to war by Ministers who were not responsible to tho people of New Zealand, and when peace returned the Ministers charged with'the task of keeping that peace unbroken for New Zealand would not bo answerablo to New Zealand voters. This could not last. Peace or war, the issues of national life and death were the greatest of all national interests. Cer. tainly tho time would coined and at no distant date, when the people of the great self-governing Dominions would have ' Ministers responsible to themselves for foreign affairs. There were, however, two ways, and two only, in which this could Be done. The Ministers at Wellington, already answerable to the people of New Zealand, were not at present responsible for the issues of peace and war. They might, of course, be mode so, but this could only be dono by telling foreign nations that in future peace and war would be made for New Zealand, not in London, but in Wellington. Such ft notification, however, was a declaration of independence, which severed' the connection of. New Zealand with the British Commonwealth and deprived its people of their status as British subjects. By adopting this course the Dominions would disrupt the .British Commonwealth for the maintenance of which they were now fighting the Germans. ' The only other alternative was: to make the Ministers now responsible for Imperial affairs no less answerable to New Zealonders than to Englishmen, in order to do this, the present Imperial Government must first be divested of all business solely relating to the British Isles. Britain must have a Dominion Government of • its own to look after..its own affairs, -just as Canada or South- Africa liajS. The Imperial Cabinet and Parliament could then be so reconstructed as to make tbcm representative of all the Dominions,' including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, as well as Britain. The measure required to effect such a change could only be drafted by an Imperial Convention representing the leaders of all parties .in all the Dominions. Such a measure when drafted would have to be ratified by the people in each of the countries concerned. And by no other means could the British Commonwealth continue to exist.