CO129-581-16 British propaganda in Hong Kong 18-4-1939 - 29-10-1939 — Page 37

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into law in 1931 of the Statute of Westminster, which established

In 1955 the Govern- the above-mentioned self-governing Dominions.

ment of India Act conferred a considerable measure of self-

government on the peoples of India.

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The British Government is a democratic government, democracy being the best means so far devised to reserve those things to

liberty, and which the British Commonwealth attaches supreme value individual freedom of thought, of speech and of conscience, together

with the idea of service to the State,

Speaking at the same Imperial Conference in 1957, Mr. Mackenzie King, the Prime Minister of Canada, said that "The stark constrast between liberty and regimentation has now been made manifest to all, the value of freedom as the source of self-realisation, of national power, of enduring international co-operation, is more fully

realised than ever before.

Support for Britain.

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What attitude, then, do these self-governing countries adopt towards Britain in the present state of world unrest? What justification is there for assuming that any of them contemplate breaking away from the rest and possibly supporting the totalitarian states? From the utterances of their leading statesmen and news- papers there is no reason whatever for assuming that any of them would be glad to be free of the easy links which bind them to

Great Britain.

After an emergency meeting of the Federal Cabinet last March, the late Mr. Lyons, then Prime Minister of Australia, stated that the Commonwealth Government had assured the Eritish Government of its readiness to co-operate in endeavours to deal with the international situation, and had expressed its whole-hearted support of the efforts the British Government were making to ensure the peace and security of the world from further encroachments by force on the

Other Australian leaders freedom and independence of other nations.