ISLAND MANDATES.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 January 1921, Page 2

ISLAND MANDATES.

APPROVAL BY LEAGUE. POSITION OF DOMINIONS. A cablegram, published recently, stated that the Pacific Island mandates had been approved by the League of Nations in a form that was satisfactory to Australia. The position is that the League has confirmed the mandates as drafted by the representatives of the Allied and Associated Powers at the Peace Conference. This does not make any change in the control of Western Samoa by New Zealand, and of German New Guinea by Australia. The Dominion Governments have been working on the draft mandates since the signing of the peace treaty, and it appears that they must wait some time yet before they receive the actual documents. The operation of the mandatory system is raising some interesting questions, particularly in relation to the status of the Dominions within the Empire. The mandates, as has been stated, are issued by the Allied and Associated Powers, but there is a provision in the Peace Treaty that the States holding the mandates are to make annual reports to the League of Nations regarding the territories entrusted to them. These reports are to relate specially to the welfare of the native populations, and the League has the right to recommend the modification or withdrawal of a mandate in the event of a Government failing to conserve effectively the interests of the natives. The League apparently has no executive powers, and as far as the British Empire- is concerned the League’s relations with th® various States are not yet clearly defined. The point is illustrated by the fact that the Dominions have received their mandates in two ways. Australia and -South Africa (which Jias control of German South-west Africa) have chosen to receive their mandates direct from the Peace Conference, without the intervention of the Imperial Government. New Zealand, on the other hand, elected to receive the Samoan mandate through the King. Australia and South Africa will be entitled., it seems, to make their reports direct to the League of Nations, but an arrangement of this kind might not work well while the Empire retains its present constitution. The New Zealand High Commissioner, Sir James Allen, had this situation in mind when he suggested in London recently that a Dominion department should be created apart from the Colonial Office, for the transaction of business relating to the self-governing Dominions. .Such a department could act as a clearing house for the mandates, and could keep all the Governments of the Empire in touch with what is being done by the various States. Some of these matters will be discussed at the next conference of Prime Ministers.