1941-01-03 — Page 43

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, This 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- fore equally entitled to a Voice in the higher conduct of the wàr. 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 Africa; and there are backdoors on the Pacifle which are of equal moment to them. Surely then it is only right that they should have a full voice in the daily de- cisions on strategy and diplomacy which may determine their fate ac nations.

So runs

the argument, and very strong it seems. But its ex- ponents usually forget two very importance lessons, both of which

satice

finds

that lost

appetite

H.P. Sauce sharpens the moat jaded appe- rite. Cunningly blended from choice fruits and spices, it

dis pruancy and sest to a fiah, meat 10x3 chotac dishes. Try come to-day.

UN

HP

SAULE

Cabinet Work?

might be drawn from the experi- for Dominion Affairs constitute, ence of the Imperial War Cabiriet in effect, a shadow Imperial Con- in 1917 and 1918.

ference in permanent session,

The Problem Of

Personnel

In the first placc, it proved very difcult to bring that Imperiai War Cabinet together and to

By Britannicus

maintain it in being with any- tlung near to continuity. There were two sessions in 1912, 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 Imperial War Cabinet of 1917-18 was a success. As a Cabinet, it must be counted a failure.

The Problem Of

Responsibility

In the second place, the In- perial War Cabinet of 1917-18 was à 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 British Commonwealth ot Nations of Statute-of-West- minster days, these conditions of Cabinet Government fulfilled. There can be no collec- cannot be tive responsibility because there is no 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 is personal domination of a single vital. It explains much of the chairman, a kind of Prime Minis- present coolness af Dominion ter for the whole Empire, would Governments towards proposals be a denial of Dominion autonomy, to revive the Imperial War Ca- not a tribute to it. binet. An outstanding Dominion Premier, like General Smuts. on whom a great burden of national Those who demand an imperial government falls, cannot forsake War Cabinet surely make the old for long his post in his own coun- mistake of trying to apply the try. I a Minister other than the methods of the last war to the Premier represents a Dominion winning of this one. On the con- on the Imperial War Cabinet, une trary, the greatest merit of the of two things is likely to happen: British Commonwealth system is either he becomes inore powerful its flexibility, which enables it to than the Prime Minister-an ex- be readily adapted to new eir- tremely dangerous political situa- cumstances. This war has already tion or he becomes little more produced practical substitutes for than

a permanent quasi-diplo- the machinery of the Imperial matic representative in London, War Cabinet. It has produced the unable to speak authoritatively Delhi Conference, the Dominions without instructions or reference Secretary's daily meetings with bark. It is small wonder that the High Commissioners, the visits to Dommens have been well content London of Colonel Reitz, and other to be represented, fur day-to-day Dominion Ministers a year ago, consultations. in Whitehall, by General Smuts' meeting with Mr. then High Comunissioners, train- Eden in Khartoum, and many an- ed and trusted quasi-diplomats. other piece of working machinery The daily meetings of the Domin- to meet known needs with coin- ion High Cominissioners in Lon- monsense solutions based on don with the Secretary of State equality and adjustment.