CALLING THE DOMINIONS TO THE NATION'S COUNCILS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 138, 29 October 1912, Page 4

CALLING THE DOMINIONS TO THE NATION'S COUNCILS.

Those who read Viscount Esher's book, and they should include every thinking mjin and woman who has the interests of the Empire at heart, will turn with especial interest to those pages which deal with the admission of the dominions to a share in the work of the Committee. For this is constructive work, the framework upon which the future of tile Empire will be built. ,It is interesting here to recall that Mr. Deakin suggested to the Imperial Conference of 1907 that the rights of the dominions in regard to the Committee should be extended. The upshot was the following resolution, known as No. 2 of 1907: — "That the colonies be authorised to refer to the Committee of Imperial Defence, through the Secretary of State, for advice- on any local questions in regard to which expert assistance is deemed desirable; tlmt whenever so desired, a representative of the colony which may wish for advice should be summoned to attend as a member of the Committee during the discussion of the questions raised."

"A long step was taken in this direction," writes Viscount Esher, "when, in 1911, the Prime Ministers of the dominions were invited to attend a sitting of the Committee, and were addressed by the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and the Secretary for War. The rise of a great sea power in competition with the British Navy—that force upon which, hitherto, the security of Great Britain and of the British Empire has rested—has rendered imperative the consideration of Imperial defence as a problem which cannot be solved toy Britain alone. Statesmanship has before it the choice "between foreign alliances and a practical federation of the Empire for purposes of common defence. The matter is urgent, and a decision cannot be postponed. National safety and national dignity indicate the right path. Mutual help between the component parts of the Empire demands mutual confidence and a •ommon responsibility for foreign affairs. The day cannot now be far distant when the affairs of the Colonial Office should be relieved of the affairs of the dominions. The Colonial Office, in that sphere, is an anachronism. Every consideration points to the Bureau of the Prime Minister, tp the Secretariat of the Committee of Imperial Defence, as the suitable machinery for keeping Great Britain and the dominions in touch, and as a m'eans of establishing more intimate, more confidential and more binding relations between the Mother Country and the dominions, which very shortly will surpass her in population and wealth as they do already in area and extent." Viscount Esher concludes his survey of constructive Imperial policy thus: "In order to federate more or less independent groups of men of the same race and speech, some menace is required to their pride and independence. First, the Chauvinism of the Napoleonic tradition; and,' secondlv< the French spirit of "Revanche," federated and have kept together the German Empire. Bismarck, far-seeing, or "esprit positif," found in Alsace-Lorraine the instrument he required to hold together the South and North German peoples. His successors have provided us with a weapon equally potent for our purposes. No British statesman could have federated the British Empire. Tliat object is going to bo accomplished by the menace of the German Fleet."