Commonwealth Association
Mr. Churchill was clearly right to reject the proposal, made in a question in the House of Commons on Tuesday, that the idea of an economic federation of the Commonwealth, with one customs union, one currency and one external balance of payments account, should be placed on the agenda of the forthcoming Commonwealth Economic Conference. Quit; apart from the complication such financial arrangements might cause in relations 'between Commonwealth and non-Common- wealth States the attempt to leap at a distant goal would imperil the whole harmonious relationship which exists between the constituent States of the Commonwealth itself. It would be impossible to achieve economic federation on this scale without a large .measure of political federation, and against that most, if not all, members of the Commonwealth have resolutely set their faces. They have found a way, as no other group of nations in the world has, of combining sovereign independence with effective co-operation, and there is no need, at present, to go beyond that. It is conceivable that in the evolution of time a gradual accumulation of ad hoc agreements in the economic sphere may gradually bring about such a relationship as is suggested in the Commons question, but that is very different from engaging in premature efforts at an artificial unity. Rela- tions between the Commonwealth States are too delicate, and at the same time too satisfactory, to, be made the subject of rash experiments.
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