14 NOVEMBER 1931, Page 2

An Empire Constitution One of the immediate tasks of the

new Government is the passage into law of the Bill known as the Statute of Westminster, approved by the last Imperial Conference, and designed to give juridical force to that doctrine of equality of status between the British Dominions and this country, and between the Dominions themselves, which no one has been disposed to challenge since Lord Balfour laid it down as long ago as the Imperial Conference of 1926. But it is precisely this translation of accepted doctrine, particularly of doctrine that has gradually come to be accepted, that the average Englishman most dislikes. Leave it vague and everyone understands it ; put it on paper and holes can be picked in any definition. That may be true, but the fact remains that certain Dominions, jealous lest their demand for the fullest command over their own destinies should ever be questioned, would be satisfied with nothing less than the Statute. That being so, Lord Hailsham is clearly right when he contends that while the adoption of the Statute by Parliament may do no particular good its rejection would do very serious harm.