6 MARCH 1959, Page 7

THE IDEA Is all the odder in that Lord Altrincham

combines it with the idea that the Commonwealth `should stand for definite principles—anti-racial- ism, parliamentary government, universal suffrage,' etc. Even if he is right to take it for granted that parliamentary government is necessarily the best form of government for everybody, which I doubt, and right in thinking that the Common- wealth should stand for definite principles, which I more than doubt—if Lord Altrincham's print, ciples were strictly applied, Ghana, South Africa, Southern Rhodesia and Pakistan would have to be driven out—these principles would not mix well with an arbitrary Head of the Common- wealth.