THE CHINA MAIL FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, JANUARY 3, 1941.
Would Commonwealth
SOMEONE started a clamour for an Imperial War Cabinet, and
it has been taken up by many
- organs of the press both in Britain
and in the overseas Empire.
On the surface, it is a project with much to recommend it. Thus is a war, not of Britain alone, aid- ed by subordinate countries, but of a group of independent nations within the British Common- wealth, equal in status and there- Jore equally entitled to a voice in the higher conduct of the war. The Dominions, it is felt by many people in Britain, could bring a fresh outlook, new ideas, youth- ful energies to Whitehall. More- "over, the war is now being fought on terrain of vital geographical importance to the Dominions and India, in the Middle East and in Afrien; and there are backdoors on the Pacific which are of equal moment to them. Surely then it is only right that they shoubl have a full voice in the daily de- cisions on strategy and diplomacy which may determine their fate me nations.
So
rung the argument, and very strong it seems, But its ex- ponents usually forget two very importance lessons, beth of which
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Cabinet Work?
might be drawn from the experi- ence of the Imperial War Cabinet in 1917 and 1918.
The Problem Of
Personnel
In the first place, it proved very dimcult to bring that Imperiai War Cabinet together and
to
By Britannicus
maintam it in being with any- thing near to continuity. There were two sessions in 1917, and it did not meet again until after the Armistice.
The more
important the Do- minion statesman, the more he was needed in his own country. As a series of ad hoc Imperial Conferences, the Cabinet of 1917-18 was a success. Imperial War
As a Cabinet, it must be countert a failure.
This question of personnel is vital. It explains much of the present coolness of Dorninion Governments towards proposals to revive the Imperial War Ca- binet. An outstanding Dominion Premier, Bike General Smuts. on- whom a great burden of national government falls, cannot forsake for long his post in his own coun- try. If a Minister other than the Premier represents a Dominion on the Imperial War Cabinet, one of two things is likely to happeų: either he becomes inure powertal than the Prime Minister-an ex- tremely dangerous political situa- tion--or he becomes hitle more than a permanent quasi-diplu- matic representative in London, unable to speak authoritatively without instructions or reference back. It is small wonder that the Doniuiens have been well content to be represented, for day-to-day consultallors In Whitehall, by the High Commissioners, train- ed and trusted quasi-diplomats, The daily meetings of the Domin- lon High Commissioners in Lon- don with the Secretary of State
for Dominion Affairs constitute. in effect, a shadow Imperial Con- ference in permanent session.
The Problem Of
Responsibility
In the second place, the Im- perial War Cabinet of 1917-18 was a failure as a Cabinet, because the essence of Cabinet Government is the collective responsibility of the Cabinet as a whole. In war-time, when all effort is bent on the single goal of winning the war, this almost inevitably means sub- ordinating individual ministerial responsibility to
loyalty to a
powerful Prime Minister like Mr. Lloyd George or Mr. Winston Churchill,
In the ol
cannot
British Commonwealth Nations of Statute-of-West- minster days, these conditions of Cabinet Government
be fulfilled. There can be no collec- tive responsibility because there is no supreme Parliament to which the collective body could be res- ponsible. There are five separate responsibilities to live separate and-independent Parliaments. The personal domination of a single chairman, a kind of Prime Minis- ter for the whole Empire, would be a denial of Dominion autonomy,
of a tribute to it.
•
Those who demand an Imperial War Cabinet surely make the old mistake of trying to apply the methods of the last war to the winning of this one. On the con- trary, the greatest merit of the British Commonwealth system is its flexibility, which enables it to be readily adapted to new cir- cumstances. This war has already produced practical substitutes for the machinery of the Imperial War Cabinet. It has produced the Delhi Conference, the Dominions' Secretary's daily meetings with High Commissioners, the visits to London of Colonel Reitz and other Dominion Ministers a year age, General Smuts' meeting with Mr. Eden in Khartoum, and many an- other piece of working machinery to meet known needs with com- monsense solutions based on equality and adjustment.