SEPARATE LEGATIONS

Hokitika Guardian, 15 October 1928, Page 8

SEPARATE LEGATIONS

POLICY EXPLAINED BY MR MACKENZIE KING. RUGBY, Oct. 11. The Prime Minister of Canada, Mr W. Mackenzie King, in a speech atthe Canada Club dinner last night, referred to the representation within and without the Empire of the Crown and of the Governments of the several nations the households of which comprise the British family.

The Governor-General, he said was now regarded both in Britain and in Canada as the personal representative of the King. He was no longer in any way the representative in Canada of the Government of Great Britain, and the distinction had , been made apparent by the appointment to Canada within the last few months of Sir William Clarke as representative of His Majesty’s Government in Great Britain. From their point of view this distinction between the Crown and Government as separate and distinct entities could not work for other than good. What they had most at heart was the maintenance of Britain’ institutions at their best and, above all, their permanency under the separate representation of the Crown and Govrnment. Should differences of anv kind between the Governments unfortunately arise, there would be ho possibility of the Crown being involved. As to the representation in England of the Government of Canada, it was now generally recognised that the position of High Commissioner possessed diplomatic as well as a business character, and that the High Commissioner represented the Government of Canada in its many relations with the Government and acted in reference thereto upon the instructions of the Government of .Canada, the confidence of which ho possessed to the full. The opening of the Canadian Legation at Washington was little more than an act of formal approval of a course which had become the accepted practice, than of Canadian ' Ministers dealing direct, or through their own specially appointed representatives, with the Government of the United States on matters of mutual interest and concern. He thought that it had become generally . recognised to-day that the opening of the Canadian Legation at Washington had strengthened the British position in that capital, and that in no particular had H imperilled British unity, but tlmt, rather it had made for British solidarity. 1

He had just come from witnessing the opening of the Canadian Legation in Paris, the establishment of which, as in Washington, was but the last of the logical steps which had marked the full attainment of self-government by Canada. With respect to Canadian interests, whether domestic or external what was uppermost in Ins mind in the establishment of such legations was the desire to gain advantage in international .'negotiations and diplomatic standing and status for the representative of Canada’s interests in the United States and France, and to provide a means of more effective consultation and co-operation between tlie British and Canadian Governments on matters in the United States and France which were to them of common interest and concern.