Mr. Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia, was entertained by Australians
at dinner on Friday week, on the eve of his departure. Mr. Bonar Law and Lord Rosebery were among the speakers, and we must note Mr. Bonar Law's statement that the resolutions of the Paris Conference represented the "settled policy" of the Govern- ment. Mr. Hughes gave as his parting message to Britain an emphatic assertion that the relations of the Mather Country and the Dominions could not remain as they were. When Britain went to war the Dominions could no more stand apart than children could look on while their father was struck. At the same time, war affected life at every turn in the Dominions. War was in practice a method of taxing the Dominions. So long as the Dominions had no say in the negotiations which preceded war there was therefore an undoubted impairing of their sovereignty over themselves. There must not only be a change from all this, but a "radical change." We agree. The Empire could not continue on its present terms, and we have nothing to fear in the prospect. Mr. Hughes has always stated his case with sanity as well as with enthusiasm.
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