BRITISH EMPIRE OF THE FUTURE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 172, 15 April 1919, Page 7

BRITISH EMPIRE OF THE FUTURE

A LEAGUE OF NATIONS IN FACf

BRITISH THINGS FIRST Bj' Telcgranh—Press-Association—Copyright (Rec. April 14, 9.5 p.m.) . , London, April 11. Lord iMilner, speaking at a luncheon at the Manchester branch of the Royal Colonial Institute, eaid that the transforma-. tion in the relations between the Motherland and the Dominions wgs almost, complete. . The Dominions . were entitled to look to the future,' in which they would bo great Powers, yet all,desired; to re-' main in' the' Empire, and if that desire ■were fulfilled the world:would see what it had never seen, before* a number of great' Powers-under a single head. It would lie, was in fact, already a League of Nation?, but possessing a moral unity which the Greater League had still to acquire, No machinery of administration cnuld be of any avail unless we preserved our moral unity in the Empire. Ho attached much importance in this con--neclion to Imperial. preference. This had been treated too much as if it were and affair of tariffs, but the root of the matter w.as that were a familv of nations', and in. all our policy dealings that family's interest'should come first., Wo should not go in for washy internationalisation, and uretend to care for Paraguay or Bolshevia equally with Can. ada. Australia, South Africa.. or. Netf Zealand. He honed that the practice of the Dominions' Ministers, sitting side by side with British Ministers in.matters of common'concern would never ind. 'The present arrangement had been an un< qualified success. The Dominion tors had taken a real share in the con< duct of the war nolicy. No amount o( direction or good will between the several State? would enable the Empire to exercise its proper .influence in thfl world unles« .we maintained the means of nlanning and acting together as one Power.—Reuter.