Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1938. EMPIRE CONSULTATION.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 July 1938, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1938. EMPIRE CONSULTATION.

'WITHIN the limits of safe generalities, the British Prime Minister (Mr Chamberlain) made an entirely sympathetic reply when he was asked in the House of Commons on Wednesday whether he would take steps to establish machinery with a view to securing adequate consultation between the Governments of the Empire oil the main aspects of foreign affairs. Observing that principles covering the system of communication and consultation between his Majesty’s several Governments on foreign affairs were now well established, Mr Chamberlain said the machinery at present in force had been devised “to give full effect to those principles.”

True as this may be, it is nevertheless plain to all observers that of actual consultation between the Governments of the Empire on questions of foreign policy there is very little indeed. In spite of the Statute of Westminster, which ostensibly clothes them with the attributes and responsibilities of sovereign States, the Dominions are still very much in the position of being free to say yes, or to say nothing, with reference to any proposal Britain may advance in the domain of foreign policy.

With the doctrines of power polities tending again to become dominant in the world, and with Britain bearing an overwhelming part of the burden of Empire defence preparation, it gives no obvious or immediate ground for complaint that the voice of the Dominions counts for comparatively little in the determination of concrete issues of foreign policy as these arise from day to day. On this point the British Prime Minister made deft use of the words of the Australian Attorney-General (Mr R. G. Menzies), who has been advocating more effective consultation between the Governments of the Empire on foreign affairs. Mr Menzies had said, Mr Chamberlain pointed out, that international affairs could not always wait while the family was having chats round the fireside.

It is rather more important and of greater interest, however, that Mr Chamberlain appears to have evaded one of the questions put to him on Wednesday. This was ’whether the Dominion Governments would have an opportunity of helping to shape British foreign policy, instead of being asked to approve or disapprove particular aspects of it. Mr Chamberlain does not seem to have replied to this question. Possibly he was too polite, or he may have deemed it to be inexpedient, to say what he really thought on the subject.

So far, in any case, as concrete and immediate issues of foreign policy are concerned, the Dominions evidently can do little, as matters stand, to influence the decisions of the British Government. If the Dominions are to make their influence tell in foreign policy it is necessary, not only that their Ministers and public men should be adequately versed in the problems involved and competent to give a lead, but that public opinion in the Dominions should be sufficiently informed and interested to ensure, in the right circumstances, the backing and support that make leadership effective.

These indispensable conditions of active and immediate co-operation with Britain in foreign policy are not satisfied at present in any Dominion of the Empire. In all the Dominions, knowledge of foreign affairs tends to be sketchy and fragmentary, and the greatest of the Dominions, Canada, shows a somewhat pronounced inclination to develop an isolationist policy of her own.

Disconcerting as they are at an immediate view, these facts in no way weaken the contention that the future of the Empire depends on closer and more effective consultation between its several Governments on foreign affans and the shaping of foreign policy. Unless its partner States are able progressively to build up a mutual understanding' on questions of foreign policy, the unity of the Empire must be weakened as time goes on. It may reasonably be contended, however, that the initiative rests rather with the Dominions than with the British Government. It effective consultation on foreign policy between Britain and the Dominions is ever to be achieved, the people of the Dominions, as well as their leaders, must rouse themselves to a keener and more active interest in the problems involved. 1