paragraph_text: During George's reign the break-up of the British Empire and its transition into the Commonwealth of Nations accelerated. The parliament of the Irish Free State removed direct mention of the monarch from the country's constitution on the day of his accession. From 1939, the Empire and Commonwealth, except Ireland, was at war with Nazi Germany. War with Italy and Japan followed in 1940 and 1941, respectively. Though Britain and its allies were ultimately victorious in 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union rose as pre-eminent world powers and the British Empire declined. After the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, George remained as king of both countries, but the title Emperor of India was abandoned in June 1948. Ireland formally declared itself a republic and left the Commonwealth in 1949, and India became a republic within the Commonwealth the following year. George adopted the new title of Head of the Commonwealth. He was beset by health problems in the later years of his reign. His elder daughter, Elizabeth, succeeded him.

paragraph_text: If the British Empire was now going to side with the Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire had no choice but to cultivate a relationship with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was supported by the German Empire. In a few years these alignments became the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance (already formed in 1882), which were in part a cause of World War I. By its end in 1918 three empires were gone, a fourth was about to fall to revolution, and two more, the British and French, were forced to yield in revolutions started under the aegis of their own ideologies.

paragraph_text: Following the defeat of the Boers in the Anglo - Boer or South African War (1899 -- 1902), the Union of South Africa was created as a dominion of the British Empire in terms of the South Africa Act 1909, which amalgamated the four previously separate British colonies: Cape Colony, Natal Colony, Transvaal Colony, and Orange River Colony. The country became a self - governing nation state within the British Empire, in 1934 following enactment of the Status of the Union Act. The dominion came to an end on 31 May 1961 as the consequence of a 1960 referendum, which legitimised the country becoming a sovereign state named Republic of South Africa. A republican constitution was adopted.

paragraph_text: Bismuna Raya Lagoon Natural Reserve is a nature reserve in Nicaragua. It is one of the 78 reserves that are under official protection in the country.

paragraph_text: Karachaus Lagoon (, ) is a salty lagoon in the Tuzly Lagoons group in Tatarbunary Raion of Odessa Oblast, Ukraine. It was a part of the Alibey Lagoon in past, locating in its south-west part, near the Village of Roylianka. Now it is separated from the Alibey Lagoon by the sandbar. The total area of the lagoon - 7.6 km².

paragraph_text: Funafuti is an atoll and the capital of the island nation of Tuvalu. It has a population of 6,025 people, making it the country's most populated atoll, with 56.6 percent of Tuvalu's population. It is a narrow sweep of land between 20 and 400 metres (66 and 1,312 feet) wide, encircling a large lagoon (Te Namo) 18 km (11 miles) long and 14 km (9 miles) wide. The average depth in the Funafuti lagoon is about 20 fathoms (36.5 metres or 120 feet). With a surface of 275 square kilometres (106.2 sq mi), it is by far the largest lagoon in Tuvalu. The land area of the 33 islets aggregates to 2.4 square kilometres (0.9 sq mi), less than one percent of the total area of the atoll. Cargo ships can enter Funafuti's lagoon and dock at the port facilities on Fongafale.

paragraph_text: At the foundation of the Order, the "Medal of the Order of the British Empire" was instituted, to serve as a lower award granting recipients affiliation but not membership. In 1922, this was renamed the "British Empire Medal". It stopped being awarded by the United Kingdom as part of the 1993 reforms to the honours system, but was again awarded beginning in 2012, starting with 293 BEMs awarded for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. In addition, the BEM is awarded by the Cook Islands and by some other Commonwealth nations. In 2004, a report entitled "A Matter of Honour: Reforming Our Honours System" by a Commons committee recommended to phase out the Order of the British Empire, as its title was "now considered to be unacceptable, being thought to embody values that are no longer shared by many of the country’s population".

paragraph_text: Following the defeat of the Boers in the Anglo - Boer or South African War (1899 -- 1902), the Union of South Africa was created as a dominion of the British Empire in terms of the South Africa Act 1909, which amalgamated the four previously separate British colonies: Cape Colony, Natal Colony, Transvaal Colony and Orange River Colony. The country became a self - governing nation state within the British Empire, in 1934 following enactment of the Status of the Union Act. The dominion came to an end on 31 May 1961 as the consequence of a 1960 referendum, which legitimised the country becoming a sovereign state named Republic of South Africa. A republican constitution was adopted.

paragraph_text: Valaichchenai Lagoon is an estuarine lagoon in Batticaloa District, eastern Sri Lanka. Batticaloa district has three lagoons, such Valaichchenai Lagoon, Batticaloa Lagoon and Vakari Lagoon. Valaichchenai lagoon is situated in populated areas of Valaichchenai, Oddamavadi

paragraph_text: Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta in English, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal and is located in eastern India on the east bank of the River Hooghly. The city was a colonial city developed by the British East India Company and then by the British Empire. Kolkata was the capital of the British Indian empire until 1911 when the capital was relocated to Delhi. Kolkata grew rapidly in the 19th century to become the second city of the British Indian Empire. This was accompanied by the development of a culture that fused European philosophies with Indian tradition.

paragraph_text: The British Empire, consolidated during the period of British maritime hegemony in the 19th century, became the largest empire in history by virtue of the improved transportation technologies of the time. At its height, the British Empire covered a quarter of the Earth's land area and comprised a quarter of its population. During the New Imperialism, Italy and Germany also built their colonial empires in Africa.

paragraph_text: The Action of Arsuf (8 June 1918), was fought between the forces of the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire, German Empire and Austria-Hungary during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. The British Empire forces involved was the 21st (Bareilly) Brigade comprising the 2nd Battalion, Black Watch, the 1st Guides Infantry, the 29th Punjabis and the 1/8th Gurkha Rifles.

paragraph_text: Fisherhaven is a suburb of the whale watching town of Hermanus in the Western Cape, South Africa. It is situated next to the Bot River Lagoon, about 14 km from Hermanus center and about 14 km from Arabella Country Estate and Golf course. There is an abundance of indigenous fauna and flora.

paragraph_text: Delhi had served as the political and financial centre of several empires of ancient India and the Delhi Sultanate, most notably of the Mughal Empire from 1649 to 1857. During the early 1900s, a proposal was made to the British administration to shift the capital of the British Indian Empire, as India was officially named, from Calcutta on the east coast, to Delhi. The Government of British India felt that it would be logistically easier to administer India from Delhi in the centre of northern India.

paragraph_text: The Sri Lankan independence movement was a peaceful political movement which aimed at achieving independence and self - rule for Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, from the British Empire. It was initiated around the turn of the 20th century and led mostly by the educated middle class. It succeeded when, on February 4, 1948, Ceylon was granted independence as the Dominion of Ceylon. Dominion status within the British Commonwealth was retained for the next 24 years until May 22, 1972 when it became a republic and was renamed the Republic of Sri Lanka.

paragraph_text: The Garden of God is a romance novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole, first published in 1923. It is the first sequel to his best-selling novel "The Blue Lagoon" (1908), and continued with "The Gates of Morning" (1925). "The Garden of God" was adapted into the film "Return to the Blue Lagoon".

paragraph_text: Laguna de las Momias (Lagoon of the Mummies), also known as Laguna de los Cóndores (Lagoon of the Condors) is an archaeological site located in Leimebamba, in the province of Chachapoyas in the Amazonas Region of Peru, excavated by the archaeologist Federico Kauffmann Doig. The site is called "Laguna de los Condores" because the people that found the lagoon would see these birds soar near the lagoon and it also obtained the name " Laguna de las Momias" because of the findings of the mummies around the area. The Chachapoyas were an old civilization that was located in the northern forest in the time of 900 a.c. This culture had been unknown by archaeologist for hundreds of years until the mummies appeared.

paragraph_text: The eastern shoreline of Funafuti Lagoon was modified during World War II when the airfield (what is now Funafuti International Airport) was constructed. The coral base of the atoll was used as fill to create the runway. The resulting borrow pits impacted the fresh-water aquifer. In the low areas of Funafuti the sea water can be seen bubbling up through the porous coral rock to form pools with each high tide. Since 1994 a project has been in development to assess the environmental impact of transporting sand from the lagoon to fill all the borrow pits and low-lying areas on Fongafale. In 2014 the Tuvalu Borrow Pits Remediation (BPR) project was approved in order to fill 10 borrow pits, leaving Tafua Pond, which is a natural pond. The New Zealand Government funded the BPR project. The project was carried out in 2015 with 365,000 sqm of sand being dredged from the lagoon to fill the holes and improve living conditions on the island. This project increase the usable land space on Fongafale by eight per cent.

paragraph_text: Khadzhyder Lagoon (, ) is a salty lagoon in the Tuzly Lagoons group in Tatarbunary Raion of Odessa Oblast, Ukraine. It is separated from the Alibey by a sandbar. Two river, Khadzhyder River and Hlyboka River, inflow into the lagoon. The last one inflows west to the village Bezymyanka, it has a length 24 km, watershed area 80.3 km². The lagoon has a 4 km length and 2.5 km width. Two villages, Lyman and Bezymyanka, are located on the coast of the lagoon.

paragraph_text: Any individual made a member of the Order for gallantry could wear an emblem of two crossed silver oak leaves on the same riband, ribbon or bow as the badge. It could not be awarded posthumously and was effectively replaced in 1974 with the Queen's Gallantry Medal. If recipients of the Order of the British Empire for Gallantry received promotion within the Order, whether for gallantry or otherwise, they continued to wear also the insignia of the lower grade with the oak leaves. However, they only used the post-nominal letters of the higher grade.

Question: When did the country where Valaichchenai Lagoon is located leave the British Empire?
Answer: February 4, 1948