Part 18 (2/2)
COLONIAL REPRESENTATION.
If the question of Colonial representation is raised at the special Imperial Conference to be held as soon as possible after the war, Mr.
Boura.s.sa and his friends will not be welcomed to cry if it is settled very differently from their wishes, after their unwise clamour for an excursion into the unknown.
The question of the readjustment of the const.i.tutional relations of the component parts of the Empire, when duly brought up, will very likely take a wide range, so far at least as consideration goes. What will be the conclusions arrived at, n.o.body knows.
Pending that time, any one is allowed to express his own views. I thought proper to explain mine in my book dedicated to the French Canadians. I now summarize them as follows:--
Would it be advisable to have the Colonies represented in the present Imperial Parliament? After full consideration of the question, I must say that I have finally dismissed it from my mind as utterly impracticable. Can it be supposed for a moment that the electors of Great Britain would agree to have the Dominions overseas and India represented in their House of Commons, to partic.i.p.ate in the government of the United Kingdom for all purposes? With representation in the present British House of Commons, would the Colonies be also represented in the British Cabinet, to advise the Crown on all matters respecting the good government of England?
Would the Colonies be represented according to their population in the British House of Commons? If they were, India alone would have a number of representatives five times larger than all the other parts of the Empire.
Is it within the range of possibility that the people of Great Britain would consent to colonial representatives interfering, even controlling the management of their internal affairs, whilst they would have no say whatever in the internal government of the Colonies?
Would the colonial ministers in the British Cabinet be const.i.tutionally responsible to the people of the United Kingdom without holding their mandate from them?
Such a system would be so absurd, so radically impossible, that it is not necessary to argue to prove that it would not work for one single year.
In my opinion, Colonial representation would be practicable only with the creation of a new truly Imperial Parliament, the present British Parliament to continue to exist but with const.i.tutional powers reduced to the management of the internal affairs of the United Kingdom. If such is the scheme of the ”Nationalists,” then they are converts to that Imperial Federation which they have vehemently denounced for years, and to the largest measure possible of that Imperialism which has been cursed with their worst maledictions.
If ever complete Imperial Federation becomes an accomplished fact, how will it be organized? Will the new Imperial Parliament consist of one Sovereign, one House of Lords--or Senate--one House of Commons?
Would the Sovereign be King or Emperor? I, for one, would prefer the word EMPEROR. He might be t.i.tled His Majesty the Emperor of the British Commonwealth and the King of Great Britain.
With Imperial Federation--a regime of complete Imperial autonomy--the word ”colonies” would no longer apply. Would Canada, Australia, South Africa, India, New Zealand be called Kingdoms, like Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtemberg, of the German Empire?
Evidently, the const.i.tutional powers of the new Parliament would be limited to external relations, to strictly Imperial affairs.
The new const.i.tutional organization of the British Empire would combine Imperial, National and Provincial autonomy, each operating within the well defined limits of their respective privileges and attributions.
Under such a regime, there would be three sorts of responsible Cabinets: The Imperial Cabinet responsible to the whole Imperial electorate; the National Cabinets of the component Kingdoms of the British Empire responsible to the electorate of each one of those Kingdoms respectively; the Provincial Cabinets responsible to the electors of each province respectively.
The Royal--or rather Imperial--Prerogative to declare war and to make peace would be exercised upon the responsibility of the Imperial Cabinet.
To the new Imperial Parliament would undoubtedly be given the right and the duty to provide for Imperial defense. They would have to organize an Imperial army and an Imperial navy for the protection of the whole Empire.
The whole of the reorganized Empire would have to pay the whole of the expenditures required for Imperial purposes, defense and others, on land and sea, out of revenues raised by laws of the Imperial Parliament.
Under the new Imperial const.i.tutional regime, would the Imperial Parliament be given the authority to regulate Imperial trade and commerce, the Imperial postal service, &c.?
Would the new Parliament have the exclusive right to approve commercial treaties sanctioned by His Majesty the Emperor, upon the advice of his responsible Imperial Cabinet, without reference whatever to the National Parliaments of the component Kingdoms?
How easily is it ascertained that numerous questions of paramount importance are at once brought to one's mind the moment the vast problem of a new and greater Imperial Commonwealth is considered. Shortsighted and inexperienced are the politicians and the publicists who imagine that it could be given a satisfactory solution after hasty and insufficient deliberations. It is very rea.s.suring to know that the matter necessarily being suggested for consideration at the Imperial War Conference, last year, it was immediately decided, by a ”Resolution,”
adopted on the proposition of the Canadian Prime Minister, ”THAT THE READJUSTMENT OF THE CONSt.i.tUTIONAL RELATIONS OF THE COMPONENT PARTS OF THE EMPIRE IS TOO IMPORTANT AND INTRICATE A SUBJECT TO BE DEALT WITH DURING THE WAR.”
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