THE EMPIRE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS.
BY EVELYN WRENCH.
" The whole question of the representation of the Dominions will have to be tackled. We are determined to do that. I have already, with the concurrence and unanimous approval of the Cabinet as a whole, invited the whole of the Dominions to con- sider the problem. I hope before the end of the year we will meet in London and argue it out, and ultimately, I hope, adopt a plan that will make it impossible in the future to have these conditions that have unhappily arisen in this case, and at the same time ensure and guarantee the full status, prestige and right of the Dominions to take part in all matters that affect their interests as well as our own." THUS spoke the Colonial Secretary at Derby during the week-end when referring to Dominion repre- sentation at International gatherings in the future. His remarks were, of course, inspired by the correspon- dence which has been taking place during the past week between the Canadian and British Governments con- cerning Canadian representation at the Inter-Allied Conference now sitting in London. The British Govern- ment has, admittedly, had its hands very full in other directions during the past few months, but it must be confessed that it cannot be congratulated on the manner in which it has dealt with the subject of Dominion representation at International gatherings.
Doubtless Europe looms very large in the mind of Downing Street, but surely the sacrifices of the Great War will have been in vain if we have not formed _ a juster conception of what the British Commonwealth is than appears to be the case, and of the status which was then granted to the Dominions as a result of their part in those anxious years.
It is not only in Canada, where national sentiment is more fully developed than in the other Dominions, that many will agree with Mr. R. A. Crouch, the Australian delegate to the forthcoming British Commonwealth Labour Conference, whose letter appeared in the Times on Satjirday, when he remarked " that the English mind is far too ready to accept ` European predominance ' " ; otherwise, he asks, how is it possible that at the present Conference the European States, "with slight interest in its results," are accepted with full status, " while our great Dominion nations meet in some back room and are informed of developments and allowed to appear at discreet intervals " This remark of the Australian correspondent refers to the Panel system, whereby one representative of the Dominions and India shall always form part of the British Empire delegation, the Dominions taking it in turn to exercise this right.
It might have been assumed, in view of the recent controversy with the Canadian Government concerning Canadian representation at Lausanne, that the British Government would have been extra careful to avoid the possibility of friction. Yet here we are a few weeks after the Lausanne incident discussing a somewhat similar situation. It is quite beside the point to say, as some do, that Canada in her external relations may be hyper-sensitive about her status or that her Prime Minister seems to be over-anxious about her represen- tation in International gatherings.
The Prime Minister of Canada has every right to insist that nothing be done which will derogate from the status which she and the other Dominions were accorded by the Allied Powers at the Versailles Conference ; a status which was subsequently confirmed two years later at Washington. How strong the feeling of the Canadian Government has been on the subject may be gathered from a perusal of the debates at Ottawa and Mr. 'Thomas's responses in the House of Commons on July 18th, for it was not till the Conference had been sitting for three days that he was in a position to announce that Canada had agreed to the proposed representation by the Panel system.
The Colonial Secretary has stated that arrangements have been made for the Dominion representatives appointed on the Panel system to be present at the meetings of the Conference on days when it is not their turn to sit as members of the British Empire Delegation. This arrangement has been agreed to at the last moment, but no one conversant with` Dominion opinion can regard it as satisfactory, and the Times is to be congratulated on the lucid leading article it published on Saturday in which it stated that the Panel system is clearly no solution of the fundamenal problem. It is because the matter is of such importance that I make no apology for referring to it at length in the Spectator, which has always taken an active interest in Empire problems.
Many students of Imperial development regard as one of the greatest achievements of the world War the world recognition of the nationhood of the Dominions within the British Commonwealth. At Versailles nations like Australia and Canada, which had made sacrifices to the common cause as great, shall we say, as those of Japan and Belgium, were accorded the international recog- nition which was their due. Ever since the gathering of Versailles our statesmen and writers have referred to this status of nationhood then accorded ; and yet for some reason, which the outsider cannot understand, there would appear to be a desire at recent International gatherings to whittle down what was given to the Dominions at Versailles: We have been told that the British Commonwealth consists of a group of sister-nations, equal partners in a world state. Can it for a moment be assumed that Panel representation implies equality ? On one hand you have Great Britain permanently represented at the Conference by a majority of delegates, on the other hand nations like .Australia and Canada, with populations equal to say Belgium or Rumania, officially represented every fifth day, although there is a crumb of comfort in the thought that both the Prime Minister and Mr. Thomas have referred to Dominion representation at the present Conference as " not implying a precedent." The Press informs us that the present gathering is the most important International assembly since Ver- sailles, and we readily accept this statement. All the more necessary therefore was it that there should have been no bungling as regards the British Empire repre- sentation ; we should have been spared the unedifying spectacle of the duly appointed Canadian representative, armed with credentials under an order in Council from his Government, arriving in this country ignorant as to what his position was to be and stating that he was not prepared to accept the Panel arrangement. It is satis- factory to learn from the lips of Mr. Thomas that the difficulties " have been smoothed away," but with this sorry record of blundering and misunderstanding during the past few months, for which the present British Government is only partially responsible, it would be well not to be over-optimistic in this matter.
The present Colonial Secretary is fully alive to the gravity of the situation, and it is gratifying to learn from . him that this whole intricate question of Dominion representation in International gatherings is to form the subject of a Conference to be held before the end of the year. From the standpoint of Empire co-operation, the sooner we dispel the idea that the Dominion repre- sentatives will have to come to London to insist on their rights the better. As far as the great body of British public opinion is concerned there is no desire, and never has been, to take from the Dominions the smallest particle of the status and prestige which. they gained as a result of their acts in the world War. It may, of course, be argued that the attitude of the Canadian Prime Minister and his supporters is not representative of Canada as a whole, or of the majority of the electorate in the other Dominions. This may or may not be true, and, as in this country, there are., of course, many grades of opinion. There may still be many thousands of residents in the Dominions who would be quite ready to leave the handling of the Empire's foreign relations to the British Foreign Office.
Of one thing we can be quite sure, however, their number is decreasing and the Great War gave an entirely new orientation to Dominion thought on this subject, for it was then realized for the first time that events in Europe did very definitely effect the welfare of the Dominions. In 1914 it seemed a far cry from Serajevo to Ottawa and Melbourne, and yet subsequent events proved how interwoven are the affairs of the old and new worlds.
By all means let us hold this proposed Conference on inter-Imperial and Imperial and International Relations at the earliest possible moment, but we shall only be laying up trouble for ourselves in the future if we give currency to the belief that we in this country desire to alter the recognition, accorded to the Dominions at Versailles and subsequently at Washington, which is most emphatically not the case.
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