Round the Table.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 4, 19 March 1915, Page 3

Round the Table.

THE DOMINIONS AND THE WAR. II ‘‘lf that course is clearly pointed by the needs of the future, it is no less clearly pointed by the experience of the past. The argument from ordinary equity and common sense is fortified by a long series of events and controversies, in which the opinion of the Dominions has been more and more clearly expressed. The need of consultation has been emphasized in them by every Dominion Government. War has not altered or removed the need ; on the contary, it is certain to increase it.

“It is true, of course, that behind the immediate question of consultation there lies a greater issue which involves the whole method of Imperial co-operation. For some years past there lias been a steady effort to develope the means of consultation between the British Government and the various Dominion Governments, and some progress lias been made. But our present constitutional arrangements do not lend themselves easily to the object in .view; and until they are radically changed, our best efforts at consultation will fall very far short of enabling the democracies oversea to exercise the same influence upoll policy in proportion to their size as the democracy of the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister of Canada has recently called attention to this anomaly as the one respect in which the Dominions still lack responsible selfgovernment. ‘ The citizens - of the self-governing Dominions, ’ he said at Montreal on December 7, ‘ do not directly participate through their Ministers or through their Parliaments in the councils of the Empire which determine the issues of peace and war.' ‘lt would be rash,’ he added, ‘ to predict the method by which that great problem will be solved; but of this I am convinced —that the events of the war will powerfully assist ip hastening its wise solution. ’ Sir Robert Borden returned to the theme even more forcibly the same evening, when addressing the students of McGill University. ‘There is only one respect (he said) in which we in Canada have not yet attained oui full share of self-govern-inent in this Empire, and that is with regard to foreign relations and in the decision of those questions of alliance and and understandings wuich in ill the end must determine the issues of peace and war. In this we have not yet attained the full development of wiiat I believe must come. I may see the day, as you young men will certainly see it, when tiie men of Canada, of Australia, of

South Africa and of the other Dominions will have just the same voice in these questions as those who live in the British Isies. Any man who doubts that that will come doubts the Empire will hold together. ’ “It is uaquestijnab ! e- that the’ issue raised by Sir Robert Borden in these two speeches, will make itself felt more directly than ever before after the return of peace. But only a complete constitutional reconstruction can remove the anomaly which he points out, and there is obviously no possibility of reconsidering the constitution of the Empire before the end of the war. Consultation is for the moment the only course practicable, and it is not the less imperative because it is by its very nature an imperfect and provisional expedient.

“ Sir Robert Borden has carried the analysis of existing Imperial relations .'irther than most of his contemporaries in Imperial politics, but the views of the immediate question of consultation, which his recent speeches indicate, are supported by many utterances from the leaders of other Dominion Governments. This statement is illustrated by quotations from speeches of Mr Batchelor, late Australian Minister of External Affairs, Mr Fisher, and General Botha.

. “It is, then beyond question that by the resolution of the last Imperial Conference and by the undertaking then given by the British Government, the Dominions are entitled to consultation upon the issues raised by the war ‘so far as time and opportunity and the subject matter permit. ’ The necessary reservation contained in that qualifying parenthesis entirely covers the failure of the British Government, to consult them before the declaration of war. Nor does its necessity end there. However incompatible with the full measure of democratic self-govern-ment which the Dominions, in common with the United Kingdom, desire to enjoy, the same reservation will remain essential in all international questions while the constitution of the Empire continues to impose the final responsibility for imperial affairs' upon the domestic Parliament of the United Kingdom. Till that state of affairs is changed, what happened in August, 1914, will happen again in every great emergency. But the settlement after the war is different. With regard to that ’ time and opportunity ’ do, with some obvious limitations, unquestionably permit ; ‘ and the subject matter’ not only permits, but necessitates. Australia and New Zealand, for instance have captured some German possessions jn the Pacific ; Japan has captured others. It is obvious that in the »fina! negotiations British policy must show a proper regard for the views both of Australia and New Zealand, and of Japan its valued Ally. The Union of South Africa, on the other haqd, is closely interested in any international negotiations affecting foreign.possessions in the East and West of the African Contin'ent ; a,id is now proceeding, iike Australia and New Zealand to the conquest of German territory.

“ These are definite special interests, on - which the British Government should be fully in possession of Dominion views well before the time comes for settl-ment. But there is also the general effect of the settlement upon the Empire: the extent of security which it may furnish, the new responsibilities which it may impose the fresh treaty engagements which it may entail. In regard to all these things the Dominion are entitled to know, well in advance, the mind of the British Government The next Hague Conference, on which Sir Edward Grey laid stress in 1911, pales by comparaison with the international negotiation which will have to be undertaken when the war has run its course; and by these negotiations the liabilities and responsibilities of the Dominions, no less than of the United Kingdom, will be measured for many years to come. If the general review of British foreign policy, given in confidence by Sir Edward Grey to the Conference of 1911, did much to consolidate opinion and deepen mutual confidence, as all the members of that Conference testified, how much more valuable would be a similar review in the far more searching conditions of 1915.? ” (To bo Continued.)