During the past few days the Prime Ministers of the
two greatest Dominions have made important speeches on inter-Empire relationships. Speaking at Toronto, Mr. MacKenzie King dealt at length with the crisis of last autumn in the Near East and Mr. Lloyd George's appeal to the Dominions. Mr. King said :— " In free countries all Governments receive their power from the governed, and in the British countries enjoying self-govern- ment Parliament is, or should be, supreme in matters of peace or war. I hold that under our system of responsible self-govern- ment Parliament alone should determine, except in the case of threatened or actual invasion, whether the country should par- ticipate in wars in which other nations or other parts of the British Empire may become involved. This does not free the Ministry from the responsibility of taking a stand and making its position known at the right and proper time. It does, however, free the nation from the peril of being at the mercy of Jingo elements, whether in or out of power."
Speaking at Ottawa a few days later, Mr. Meighen, the ex-Premier, said that Canada's best interests were within the British orbit. "The first practical League of Nations in this erring world," he said, "was the British Empire."
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