The Dominions and Whitehall Mr. R. G. Menzies, the Commonwealth
Attorney- General, was perfectly right in saying on Sunday, on his return to Australia from London, that the whole question of the co-ordination of foreign policy between the Dominions, and, of course, Great Britain, would have to be considered at next year's Imperial Conference, and his proposal for a Dominions Secretariat will certainly demand attention. The problem is not new, and modern invention is simplifying it, for Ministers can come and go, and documents can be transmitted, by air in a third of the time more antiquated forms of travel by land and sea required. But even so it is difficult enough. A secretariat would provide mechanism rather than personality, and it is doubtful how far its members would really help their home governments to reach decisions. They certainly could not replace High Com- missioners of the type of Mr. Bruce or Mr. Massey in that respect. If, moreover, the secretariat were set up in London it would be suspected of coming unduly under Whitehall influence, while if it were located elsewhere, for example at Ottawa, it would not be in close enough touch with the British Government, which, so long as this country is the predominant factor in Empire defence, must necessarily have the chief voice in the formulation of policy. But the difficulty of the problem is not a reason why it should not be faced, but why it should.
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