Sir Keith Park Please help a poor puzzled American who doesn t quite grasp the subtleties of the British Empire and Commonwealth I read Park s bio and noted your change of allegiance for him I followed the links and note that New Zealand did not seem to achieve independence until 1947 To me it seems that Park s allegiance was actually the British Empire because New Zealand was not yet independent A pause here to dodge brickbats if I am mistaken in any of this I make the above surmise not to be contentious but because it bears on an ongoing problem I have while writing biographies on World War I flying aces A large proportion of RFC RNAS RAF aces are from New Zealand Canada South Africa and other Commonwealth countries I have been stating their allegiance as being to the British Empire because their home countries were under the control of the United Kingdom I admit I may be mistaken in this approach hence this note Any enlightenment you can share will be welcome