HEAD OF THE COMMONWEALTH
SIR,—Pharos describes as 'a dubious constitutional doctrine' my view that the Queen, as Head of the Commonwealth, is not dependent upon the advice of any national Prime Minister. I am glad, therefore, to be able to quote the authority of Professor J. D. B. Miller who, in his recently published book on the Commonwealth, writes : 'The office (if it can be called such) has no powers or activities attached to it; nor does the Queen, as Head of the Commonwealth, have any Ministers to advise her.' Professor Miller, like Pharos, believes in a Commonwealth without principles: he is cautious and sceptical to a fault. He does not, I think, see how much can be made of the Headship of the Commonwealth, even though it 'has no powers or activities attached to it.' But he does 4ee that the Queen is free, in that capacity, from the control of national politicians, It is quite unrealistic, not to say disingenuous, to conjure up the bogey of 'an arbitrary Head of the Commonwealth.' The word 'arbitrary' in this context suggests executive tyranny, which is plainly out of the question. The Head of the Commonwealth can only choose her own official entourage, plan her own movements within the Commonwealth as a whole, and, as 1 would claim, remind governments and peoples alike of what the Commonwealth stands for—or should stand for, if it is to be worthy of its name. These powers, which can anyway exist only on sufferance, are no threat to individual liberty or to national sovereignty, but they may,. God willing, help to counteract the narrow-mindedness, insularity, racialism and selfishness that disfigure the Common- wealth in its present form.
May I, incidentally, but not altogether irrelevantly, protest against Taper's disparaging references to Mr. Fenner Brockway? Mr. Brockway may not be a good parliamentary tactician, but, so far as the Common- wealth is concerned, he has as good a record of long- term statesmanship as anyone now sitting at West- minster, and when most of the Privy Councillors ok today are lost in well-deserved oblivion, his name will shine in the pages of history.—Yours faithfully, ALTRINCHAM 2 Breams Buildings, EC4
['This letter is referred to in 'A Spectator's Note- book.'—Editor, Spectator.]
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