In our judgment consultation ought to be not only possible
but obligatory in all important matters. We must have no repetition of the methods followed at Locarno, where the unity of the Empire was threatened by the impossibility of committing the unrepresented Dominions to obligations assumed by Great Britain in essential articles of the Treaty. On the other hand it is. obvious that the interest of Great Britain in many matters, particularly in European affairs, is greater than that of the Dominions, and this difference in the degree of interest is emphasized in a very practical way by the much greater cost to Englishmen at home of the maintenance of the fighting Forces. One danger is that a perfectly free Dominion might involve the Empire in war almost as easily as Great Britain might involve the Dominions. Voting power in accordance with the amount of what old-fashioned politicians used to call the " stake " might provide a very rough solution. But really we have no apprehensions about these problems. The simple fact is that there is not a trace of evidence that any single member of the Empire wants to leave it.
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