Evening star., 1924-12-08
BRITISH DOM|N|ONS
. SEEKING EQUALITY
Resentment Felt at CoIoniai
Treatment by Social Clique
in London.
Correspondence of The Star and the New
York World.

LONDON, November 25.-Are the
British Dominions to be treated by
London as poor relations. excepting
| when their help Is needed in an
emergency that threatens the mother
country? Canada, Australia and
South Africa, promised complete
equality during the war and allowed
to sign the peace treaty as independ-
ent nations now find themselves
again Colonials in their intercourse
with Whitehall. And since the Con-
| servative government came into
power, urgent voices have been
raised both here and in the do
mfnions protesting against the way
the children are treated by their
parent.
There are signs that these objec-
tions are destined to grow more
powerful until some solution is
found, or until the problem is deemed
insoluble and the ties of empire dis
solved. Sir Auckland Geddes, in his
page lecture here, which conveyed
the warning that Canada II persist
entity snubbed in London would look
TO Washington. brought the subject
OF fnterimperial relations into the
limelfght no less than Austen
Chamberlain's emphatic pronounce
ment in his first public utterances as
Aoi Sieh minister.
Speaks for Dominions.
The first thought of any English
man on appointment to the office of
1orelgn secretary must be that he
speaks in the name, not of Great
Britain only, but of the British do
nfnions beyond the seas, and that it
Is his imperative duty to preserve in
word and act the diplomatic unity of
ENr,,n n,.r fntA
one; our intercourse must be intimate
and constant, and we must speak
with one voice in the counsels of the
world"
This seems clear and definite
enough. But no speech making will
take the power of directing British
foreign policy out of the hands of the
public school boys from Eton and
Harrow and Winchester. The little
artstocratic clique that has directed
British policy from time imme emoriaI
is entitled to point with pride to the
results which 1t has achieved, and 1t
proposes to go on directing, whatever
rude colonials may think about it, or
Whatever resolutions may be passed
in imperial conferences or whatever
promises may be made by British
ministers. To be a member of the
clique that rules foreign policy you
must be a public school boy first,
with all that this implies of correct
family background. So much is es-
sential.
System Success.
But the English system succeeds
where the Austrian, for example. coll
lapsed. because here the merit sys-
tenn prevails, always within the linn
its of the governing class, and out
in
clique adopts talent wherever it can
md II. and employs il in subordinate
but highly important positions. It
VIII be difficult, indeed, for the poor
Donlnions to assault the aristocratic
fortress of the British social system
in an attempt to give Canada for
example, voice as decisive as Eng
lands in determining the empires
policy in the Pacific. The Dominions
are long way off. Their chance of
success may be measured by consid-
ering what happened to Labor here
at home when Labor came squarely
up against the same thing.
Finds ONCE Unchanged,
Foreign office policy went on as
before under Labor. The same men
remained in the same offices and pur
sued the same ends, open and secret
Ramsay Macdonald was f7attered and
smiled upon by his social superiors
and became as popular with them as
they were with him until the un-
fortunate little mix-up about the
Zinoviev letter, which "misunder-
standing in the foreign office, or
folly of the foreign secretary. as you
wish, probably cost Labor 80 seats
When the Tory Austin Chamberlain
entered the sanctum in Downing
street, vacated by the arch Tory Lord
Curzon nine months before, there was
only one serious new face to consider
in the mechanism of diplomacy after
a Socialist had been in charge of it
in the interval. A new fling system
had been introduced. Whether to
keep the new fling system or go back
to Lord Curzon's was being hotly de-
bated the other day.
Correspondents Kept Out.
The poor Dominion correspondents,
too, fare almost as badly as foreign
ers when it comes to facilities for re-
porting debates in Parliament. After
years of agitation, a handful of Do
minion reporters representing the big
agencies and a few newspapers are
given seats in the public gallery of
the House of Commons when imperial
affairs are being debated. If some
little matter, such as the fall of the
cabinet, Is taking place in the house,
however, they are kept out, as are
foreign correspondents. and colonial
and foreigner alike, whatever their
newspaper status, are threatened with
arrest If they seek, by using some
body else's ticket. or by any dodge,
| to obtain ingress to the public" gal
| leries on great occasions.
After which pertinent depression,
return to Austen Chamberlain's sur
prising statement: I'VE must speak
with one voice in the counsels of the
world"
Dominions Not Consulted.
| Setting aside such minor matters as
| the treatment of dominion corre-
spondents. which are, however, symp-
| tomato, the fact remains that since
the Washington conference the Do
minion governments have not been
| consulted in any important decision
| taken by the British government in
any such fashion as to give them a
| real influence.
Panel system Joke.
| During the London conference last
Summer the dominion issue was again
| sharply raised. At the first sessions,
attended by plenipotentiaries of Brit
| ain, France, Belgium, the United States
and the smallest allies, the Do
minion representatives here were eN-
| cluded. Later they were admitted
under a panel" system by which an
| Australian had vote one day, a
| Canadian the next, an Indian the
next This was farciaI and in prac-
tice, as the Dominion representatives
made no bones In saying, none of
them took any part at all in the
London conference. Their efforts
were confined entirely to saving
| their faces.