EMPIRE’S GROWTH

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 6, 4 December 1926, Page 9

EMPIRE’S GROWTH

DIFFICULT STAGE PASSED. NEW CONCEPTION ACCEPTED. ARTICLE BY MR BRUCE. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) LONDON, Dec. 3. “Future generations may look back upon 1926 as the year in which the Empire definitely emerged from the difficult stage of its growth and finally accepted the new conception of itself as a free partnership of genuinely equal nations which came to birth in the storm and stress of tho war.” Mr Bruce with these words concluded an article in the English Review on ; The Conference and Dominion Status. Mr Bruce argues that the period of uncertainty after the war might have been forseen. “It was implicit in the nature of the Empire from the moment when the Dominions were accorded self-government. The distinction between self-government in the domestic sphere and nursery government in the sphere of foreign politics was very well for a time, but could not last. It seems to me that tho only real, substantial question which the conference had to settle was whether the will to unity throughout the Empire liad or had not been impaired by the events and experiences of the past tweve years. It may be said that the resolutions merely clarified the position which existed all along, but there was no such general agreement about the political situation of the Empire as it existed to-day. Now that the work of clarification had been done we had to establish clearly the fact of the Dominions’ full autonomy in respect of every issue raised, and to do it on the basis of leaving the essential unity of the British Commonwealth in -every wise unimpaired. I think that both these tasks have been accomplished. “Tho great watchwords of liberty, equality and unity have been freely and unmistakably accepted. Their application in detail have gone quite as far as the needs of our time demand, without leaving that kind of over-rigid definiteness which may itself easily prove a stumbling block. We have cleared up the political situation of the Empire and know where we stand as an Empire. Each part can rely upon everyone’s genuine belief in the Imperial Union. Each knows that this close union does not imply derogation from the Sovereign. The status we have now brought about is the tightening of the bonds of common interest and sentiment in order that they may withstand the unforeseen shocks of time and circumstances. In this way they may endure for.,;, centuries.”—A. and N.Z. cable.