EMPIRE OUTLOOK

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 237, 4 July 1944, Page 5

EMPIRE OUTLOOK

American’s Opinion (Received July 3, 8.15 p.m.) NEW YORK, July The balance of Empire power is shitting from Loudon to the Dominion capitals, says the American author and economist, Hartley Grattan. In an article in "Harper’s Magazine” headed What Will Happen to the British Empire.' he says: "Britain will continue to propose, 'but the Dominions will ever increasingly dispose.” He says that Britain s exports of commodities were never suffiicent to pay lor lier imports, and addst ‘‘Dominions like Australia and Canada now have highlydeveloped capital markets ot their own and can take care of their normal needs. The future of English exports m countries like Australia and Canada turns almost entirely upon the English capacity to capture the markets lor their specialized products." . . Mr. Grattan says lhe Dominions today are much nearer being absolutely pendent nations than they were m jJ3J. There are two tendencies nt work in the British Commonwealth : First, a trend toward elaboration of the autonomy ot the Dominions: secondly, regionalism, or an inter-relation of lhe Dominions m lhe special parts of the world in which thev are located. "Britain, standing alone, cannot maintain her prestige and guarantee the defence of the Empire and Commonwealth, as she did before the war,” he says. ‘‘For this reason Mr. Curtins proposa for a supreme consultative body to deal with Empire problems was much applauded in Britain, but. examined closely, his proposal is merely a new kind ot machinery for the exchange of data and opinions.’*