Word: commonwealths
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...COMMONWEALTH (British Commonwealth of Nations...
Momentous Formula. Though the Empire Premiers wandered far afield to Cardington, they took on their return a step momentous in the history .of the Commonwealth. After weeks of phrase juggling they agreed at last upon a formula defining exactly, for the first time, the status of the Dominions: "The position and mutual relations of the group of self-governing communities composed of Great Britain and the Dominions may be readily defined. They are autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status and in no way subordinate one to the other in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs...
...Great Britain has lost her Little Empire, the Thirteen Colonies; but she now holds firmly her Second Empire, our glorious Commonwealth. We are on the way to our Third Empire, an empire with great pioneering tasks before...
...this none too lucid metaphor the Premier referred with intentional vagueness to one of the chief problems of the Imperial Conference: how to grant the Dominions the freedom they ask yet retain them within the Commonwealth. Last week a notable pioneering step was taken when, with the consent of the Imperial Conference, the Canadian Government appointed the Hon. Vincent Massey to be its Minister Plenipotentiary Extraordinary...
...Minister will place Canada on a diplomatic equality with the Irish Free State which has stolen a march on the Dominions by appointing long since its own Minister at Washington. All parts of the Commonwealth are of course still represented by the British Ambassador at Washington-a shadow of empire. (Reputedly the Union of South Africa will soon appoint a Minister to the Netherlands...