THE CHINA MAIL FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, JANUARY 3, 1941.
Would Commonwealth
Aach
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, al- ed by subordinate countries, but of a group of independent nations within the British Common- wealth, equal in status and there- fore equally entitled to a voice In the higher conduct of the war. The Dominions, it is fell 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 an Africa; and there are buckdoors on the Pacific which are of equal moment to them. Surely then & is only right that they should have a full voice in the daily de cisions on strategy and diplomacy which may determine their fate as nations,
So runs the argument, and very strong it seems. But its ex- ponents usually forget two very importance lessons, beth of which
H.P
salice
finds
that lost appetite
H.P. Sauce sharpens the mort jaded appo- tite. Cunningly bleried from choice fruits and spleet. It adi
quency and zest to wil fish, ment and cheese cilabes.
Try some to-day.
SAUCE
Cabinet Work?
might be drawn from the experi-
for Dominion Affairs constitute.
ence of the Imperial War Cabinet in effect, a shadow Imperial Con- m1917 and 1918.
ference in permanent session,
The Problem Of Personnel
In the first place. it proved very difBeult to bring that Imperial War Cabinet together and
10
By Britannicus
maintain 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- union stafegman, the more he was needed in his own country. As a series of ad hoc Imperial Conferences, the Imperial War
abinet of 1917-18 was a success. As a Cabinet, it must be counted a failure.
5
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. Churchill.
Winston
In the British Commonwealth 1 Nations of Statute-of-West- minster days, these conditions of Cabinet Government
cannot be fulfilled. There can be no collec- tive responsibility because there is na supreme Parliament to which the collective body could be res- ponsible. There are five separate responsibilities to five separate and' independent Parliaments. The This question of personnel personal domination of a single vital It explains mech of the chairman, a kind of Prime Minis- present coolness of Dominion thr for the whole Empire, would Governments towards proposals headémial of Dominion autonomy, to revive the Imperial War Ca- not a tribute to it. binet. An outstanding Dominion Premier, like General Smuts, on whort a great burden of national Those who demand an Imperial government falls, carmot forsake War Cabinet surely make the old for long his post in his own coun- mistake of trying to apply the try. 1 a Minister ether than the methods of the last war to the Premier represents a Dominion winning of this on On the con- on the Imperial War Cabinet, one trary, the greatest merit of the of two things is kely to happen: Bettish Commonwealth system is either he becomes more powertil is flexibility, which enables it to Can the Prime Minister an ex- be readily adapted to new cir- tremely dangerous political situa~ cumstances. This war has already tion or he becomes Bttle more produced practical substitutes for the Imperial a permanent quasi-diplo- the machinery of matic representative in London. War Cabinet. It has produced the unable to speak authoritatively Delhi Conference, the Dominions' without instructions or reference back. It is small wonder that the Doniniens have been well content to be represented, for day-to-day consulfatio s
Whitehall, by the High Commissioners, train- ed and trusted quasi-diplomats, The daily meetings of the Domin- ion High Commissioners in Lon- don with the Secretary of State
than
Secretary's daily meetings with High Commissioners, the visits to London of Colonel Reitz and other Dominion Ministers a year ago, General Shuts' meeting with Mr. Eden in Khartoum, and many an- other piece of working machinery to meet known needs with com-
solutions monsense
based 011 equality and adjustment.