The Self-governing Empire
It is too seldom that the House of Commons has the opportunity of discussing a question that is vital to this country as a Great Power—the question of our relations with the Dominions. The fact that there has been no Imperial Conference during the war is solely due to the fact that statesmen in the Dominions cannot simultaneously arrange to be absent from their countries amid the pressing business of war. But the Dominions themselves are as anxious as we are to create means for unified action. Mr. Curtin in particular has urged the establishment of better machinery for collaboration, and has suggested the setting up of a permanent organisation for consultation. There are two spheres in which concerted measures are of special importance. One, obviously, is that of defence. The other concerns foreign policy, in which it will be of the greatest importance that the various members of the Commonwealth should be able to speak with one voice and advocate the same policy. After the war there will also be great economic questions affecting the Empire which will have to be decided, and it will be necessary to discuss the improvement of communications and cultural questions. Mr. Emrys-Evans, Under- Secretary for the Dominions, said it was hoped to arrange meetings of Prime Ministers in the not distant future, and he thought there might be more frequent meetings of Ministers of External Affairs. He quite rightly dismissed the idea of a Federal Parliament as neither wanted by the Dominions nor consonant with the method of co-operation which has proved successful.
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