DOMINION STATUS

Hokitika Guardian, 5 April 1932, Page 8

DOMINION STATUS

CONSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS

EMPIRE S PROBLEMS,

LONDON, April 1

Discussing the Constitutional aspects of the announcement concerning the interpretation of the Statute of Westminster, Mi' J. H. Morgan, K.C., 'Professor of Constitutional Law in the University of London, said that this wa,s an experiment of which it was no i exaggeration to say that there was the seed in whose successful germination would he disco,vered the solution of a problem that had vexed every Imperial Conference since, the year 1907. That problem, always pressing, might be said to have become imperative as the result of fthe destructive ingenuity manifested in those resolutions of the Imperial Conferences of 1926 anid 1930 which attempted to raise the “status’’ of the Dominion Governments by depressing that of Great Britain. The problem had been stated at every Imperial Conference in succession except the last two —which furtively ignored it—as that of “continuous consultation in all important matters of common Imperial concern.” He borrowed those words from a resolution.of the Imperial War Conference of 1917. And the solution now attempted by the Australian Government was the appointment of one of /Australia’s most distinguished sons, Mr Bruce, as “resident Minister” in London.

DIRECT AUDIENCE. The appointment represented the maturity of a suggestion put forward again and again in the years before the war by one English statesmen after another —in particular, Mr Asquith and Lord Milner. The appointment meant that, for the first time in ©ur history, a Dominion Cabinet would have direct audience of the King whenever it wished to tender advice to his. Majesty. The importance of the appointment was not in the least to be found in the fact that Mr Bruce would also act as High Commissioner. That was quite the ffeast important aspect of the appointment. A ‘High Commissioner had never been, nor could he be, a member of the Cabinet of the Dominion which he represented, and for that very reason hi s office, in spite of all its prestige, had never been one of any great constitutional .significance, nor had it contained any potentialities of constitutional He had been, and was, a servant—a permanent official—of the Dominion Government which he represented, and as such a merely executive instrument with no initiative of his own, neither claiming, nor possessing, the “confidence” of his Majesty as one of. his Ministerial advisers. It was just that confidence which Mi' Brnce would enjoy. IVrhaps his high functions would not stop there. Ho conceived that in all Imperial matters affecting Australia he would be called into council by the British Cabinet. ,

OOVKR.NORS-GKNJ^RAL. With the “rega'lisatkm” of his office the Governor-General, however, enhanced his prestige, had lost much, if not all, of his importance. At the present moment there was a lively agitation in 'Sputh Africa and in the Irish IFree State for the abolition of his office altogether, or rather for its submergence in that of the Prime Minister under the title of “President. ’ 11 that change came about in those two Dominions (it certainly would not happen in the others), he would cease to be what he now was—-namely, his Marepresentative—and those two Dominions would take on a kind ot republican complexion. ‘lt was for them to decide, but he. doubted if they would gain very much by it- Of one thing he wa s quite sure, and that was that those who advocated this change did not realise the almost fatal consequences to their existing system o! Cabinet Government which its adoption would involve. They could not have, in any Constitution, a union of the office of head of. the State and •Prime Minister unless -they were going to give the executive the same position as it occupied in the United iStates. And that position was that, the President was directly responsible not to the- Legislature but to the electorate—directly appointed by a plebiscite for a term of years and, for the duration of that term, irremovable. 'That would mean, in South Africa and the Irish Free State, the end of that system of Cabinet Government which up till now had been a common feature of nil the Dominions. He doubted jf political opinion in those two Dominions had realised that implication. In view of all the rather topsy-turvy attempts in those two Dominions thus to explore and Accentuate all tin' theoretical possibilities presented by their new status, lie ventured to utter a word of friendly warning. He borrowed it from Oliver Cromwell, -'nil it was: “No mail goes so far as the who dues not know where he is going-”