Responsible government in the Dominions: Responsible government in the Dominions

Responsible government in the Dominions (Vol. 3)

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Multivolume work

Identifikator:: 1896933912

Document type:: Multivolume work

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Press

Year of publication:: 1912-

Collection:: Economics Books

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Volume

Identifikator:: 1896935311

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-237672

Document type:: Volume

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Volume count:: Vol. 3

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Pr.

Year of publication:: 1912

Scope:: XII Seiten, Seiten 1102-1670

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part VIII. Imperial unity and imperial co-operation

Collection:: Economics Books

1460 IMPERIAL UNITY [PART VIII are not yet prepared. In Canada the question has not arisen of recent years as far as concerns the Dominion Government! for the Dominion has been ruled by two strong parties, but the question has presented itself no less than thrice in the Commonwealth of Australia. The constitutional practice in the United Kingdom is undoubtedly that ministers shall receive a dissolution of Parliament whenever they ask for it, but no such practice prevails in the Dominions. If the Dominions were to be regarded as Kingdoms and their Governors were to be regarded as Viceroys—chosen where possible from the royal family, and reigning as constitutional monarchs—this distinction between the United Kingdom and the Dominions would certainly disappear, and there is no proof that it is yet desirable that the distinction should disappear or that it is desired that it should. In this con- nexion it is interesting to note that at the Imperial Con- ference of 19112 the New Zealand Government proposed that the High Commissioners should be given a new status, should be authorized to communicate directly with the Foreign Office, given seats on the Committee of Imperial Defence, and made the only channel of communication between the Home and the Dominion Governments. This proposal evidently implied that the Governors-General and Governors should not be used as at present, as a medium both of information to the Secretary of State and the Imperial Government, and for enforcing by their personal interposition in the form of explanation and discussion the views of the Imperial Government. Such a position of the High Commissioners would be appropriate if the Governor is to be regarded as a Viceroy and a constitutional monarch, but it would not be consistent with the position at present accorded to the Governor. ! Quite otherwise in the provinces, where dissolutions have been refused and Ministries dismissed on several occasions. The strong position of the Government in Canada renders an appointment such as that of the Duke of Connaught as Governor-General possible ; it would be different if it were likely that political action were needed, for one so closely allied to the Crown must be beyond personal interference in government and such attacks as those on Lord Aberdeen in 1896. Parl, Pap., Cd. 5513, p. 6; cf. C. 5091, pp. 555-8.

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