The Commonwealth Today:

...What was once a tightly-knit empire is now a group of independent nations tied by allegiance to the Queen The Commonwealth Today By C. Hartley Grattan THE COMMONWEALTH CONFERENCE of Prime Ministers which concluded in London on February 8 was the latest of a series which began after World War II and in effect replaced the Imperial Conferences of earlier days, just as the latter replaced the Colonial Conferences of still earlier times...

...This is because the Commonwealth does not have a central organization with powers of direction over all...

...But what shape exactly will Britain's contribution to SEATO take, influenced as Britain is by a sensitivity in Asian affairs to Nehru's neutralism...

...Australia and New Zealand might, as a matter of fact, follow along even if United States Asian policy was, in their eyes, pretty silly...

...can help the outsider, even if he is a man of infinite good will...

...and a late day it is...

...As an entity, it is somewhat on the metaphysical side...

...Plainly, Britain does not feel about South Asia the way Australia and New Zealand feel about it...

...The seeming unanimity implied in the communiques is not, therefore, a very impressive accomplishment until it is tested in the several nations from which the Prime Ministers come...

...We can see the forces at work currently...

...And what, as a matter of fact, is the degree of sensitivity to that neutralism that Britain may be expected to exhibit in any particular instance...

...It is one of those things which must be lived with for even tentative understanding to dawn...

...Communiques are issued and rumors fly, but the net result is that the Conferences have the aspect of a mildly garrulous sphinx...

...About all that can be hoped for is that enough fellow-feeling or mutual understanding will survive a possibly violent discussion to prevent anybody from going completely off the reservation...

...It is no wonder, then, that there is a considerable literature which pretends to analyze the miracle into its component parts and explain it...

...many Americans speak and write as though our relations with the United Kingdom covered the ground for the whole Commonwealth...

...How can one finally reconcile Nehru's views with those of Menzies, or St...

...While this muddle was being sorted out, the feelings of the associates were occasionally injured...

...The Prime Ministers confer, but even what they agree on is not legally binding on the conferees...

...If South Africa becomes a republic, it, too, will undoubtedly avail itself of the Indian precedent, unless the nationalistic itch overcomes common sense and it steps outside the Commonwealth, like Ireland and Burma...

...One of the advertised results of the recent Commonwealth Conference was that Australia and New Zealand had made it plain that they proposed to implement a policy of direct participation in Southeast Asian defense, along lines finally to be determined at the next SEATO meeting...

...But, as we all know, analyses of miracles are notoriously unsatisfactory...

...No amount of learned grubbing in the "sources" (what are the "sources...

...India, Pakistan and Ceylon participate...

...Laurent, or Sir Winston Churchill...

...What, then, will be Britain's line in SEATO...

...Through ANZUS, in which Australia and New Zealand are our partners...

...It is a political miracle...

...that they are associated in a fashion which, if difficult to elucidate simply and demonstrate in concrete terms, is nevertheless strongly founded...

...However, the exchange of ambassadors with the Commonwealth countries has done a lot to lessen the confusion...

...of course, that the United Stales is involved with the Commonwealth as such, for the Commonwealth lacks the institutional structure to make possible involvement with it as an entity...

...This adds up to a very impressive involvement indeed...

...However, as Great Britain at best is but first among equals, this is not to be taken to mean that Churchill is in any sense spokesman for the Commonwealth, on this or any other occasion...

...The United States can count on support for its Asian policy, supposing it to be reasonably sane, from Australia and New Zealand, but it is difficult to imagine American policy taking a shape that would win the wholehearted approval of India...

...Through United States participation in the Colombo Plan, in which Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand...

...Australia and New Zealand...

...Take the problem of Asia...

...then, react neither like India, with its neutralistic, quietistic fatalism, even indifferentism, nor like Britain, with its worries about involvements far from home viewed in part with acute awareness of India's astigmatic ambiguities...

...That much was accomplished in London lately...

...At the most recent conference, approval was given to Pakistan's assumption of the same status in the near future...

...Except for some comfort from Sir John Kotelawala of Ceylon, it looks as though Nehru stood alone in most foreign-policy discussions, but he stayed with his associates to the end and even signed a final communique that, as the Manchester Guardian remarked, seemed to reflect Churchill's thinking more than his...

...In the Imperial Conferences, there was more give and take, especially on intra-Imperial issues, but the United Kingdom's statements still carried very great weight...

...Her national survival is not directly threatened by Communist encroachment there, though neither is it a matter of indifference...

...Elizabeth is Queen of Great Britain, Queen of Canada, Australia and so on...

...but with differences left in a state called "clarified...

...Through SEATO, of which Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Pakistan are members...

...recognize Elizabeth II as Queen...

...Make of it what one can...

...In the Commonwealth Conference, autonomy is complete...

...for their geographical position in the Pacific makes them ultimately dependent upon American assistance in defense, and they are not going to forfeit that insurance policy if they can help it...

...The monarchical associates of the Commonwealth???Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Rhodesia and Ceylon...

...In the Imperial Conferences, the situation was that evolution toward full autonomy was continuing rapidly but was nevertheless always incomplete...

...Relations between the United States and the Commonwealth are, therefore, a matter of calculating our interest vis-a-vis each individual associate, while keeping in mind the effects of our relations with each on our relations with all...

...The constitutional term for this arrangement is "the divisibility of the Crown," a doctrine which as recently as twenty years ago was very radical, but which today is orthodox to all except very old fogies...

...not as Queen of them all as a single entity of any kind, metaphysical or otherwise, but as Queen of each one taken separately...

...United States-Commonwealth relations should not be left, it is obvious, to those uninterested in subtleties or to whom ambiguities are downright offensive...

...In Commonwealth Conferences, nobody is in a position to give orders to anybody else...

...David Low, the great cartoonist, once remarked to me that, if any people could mix oil and water, it was the British...

...Elizabeth is also head of the Commonwealth...

...It is this ability to reconcile opposites, after a fashion, that keeps the Commonwealth functioning...

...It is with this peculiar political association that the United States is involved...

...Through Middle East defense activities, in which Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan are concerned...

...If the Prime Ministers want to do anything about their agreements, they must get them accepted by their cabinets back home and then, usually, by their legislative bodies as well...

...Thus, the monarchical Commonwealth nations recognize Elizabeth in two guises, the republican nations in one only...

...That is foolishness...

...Australia, for her part, had declared her intention long before the conference...

...Plainly, then, India's position does not fundamentally influence Australia on this particular matter...

...What happens in that region will determine the latter's future as nations: continuation of the Communist southward movement could easily jeopardize their future...

...A conspicuous purpose of these conferences, whatever they have been called, has been to explore policy...

...Because of the historical background of the Commonwealth...

...Britain's interest in the area is that of a nation with colonies in it...

...more a matter of defining such areas of agreement as can be discovered...

...But all hands retained the views and policies with which they entered the conference...

...To this day...

...The communiques, as a matter of fact, are usually viewed as whitewash spread over the cracks of disagreement...

...It is not...

...or, better, the backgrounds of the individual associates...

...All the books and essays taken together do not add up to a conclusive demonstration of how the miracle really works...

...This was entirely expected...

...Republican nations can, therefore, recognize her as holder of that office without compromising their republicanism...

...it took the United States a considerable time to get it firmly in mind that it must manage its relations with each individual associate rather than with the United Kingdom alone as the assumed head of the association...

...Here is a schematic, but not exhaustive, picture of it at the level of special arrangements for specific purposes: ???Through NATO, to which Britain and Canada belong...

...This is clear, or reasonably so...

...and that, while the associates are able to act as autonomous nations, their actions are nevertheless influenced to a greater or lesser degree by their relations with their Commonwealth associates...

...In the Commonwealth Conferences, it appears to be mostly a matter of give and take, with less coordination of policy achieved...

...Too often, it appears that they are...

...There the phenomenon is...

...These special arrangements are managed in the context of the regular diplomatic and economic relations peculiar to our time and to our close relations with Commonwealth countries, including those leery of special relations, like India and Ceylon...

...Through North American defense, in which Canada plays a major role and into which the United Kingdom comes through the West Indies...

...In the Colonial Conferences, this mostly meant that the United Kingdom laid down its policy and justified it if necessary, while the colonies were confined to making scenes if they didn't like some phase of it...

...Nor is the evidence conclusive that everybody active in American diplomacy is yet completely free of misconceptions on the point...

...A far more difficult matter is to reckon correctly the influence of the Commonwealth countries on one another...

...When they were called Colonial Conferences, the maximum degree of autonomy was domestic self-government...

...Rather, the United Slates is involved with it through dealings and relations with the individual associates...

...Since the Commonwealth Conferences are family affairs, the contemporaneous revelations of what went on in them are never complete...

...At one and the same time, it must be kept in mind that the Commonwealth nations are individually autonomous...

...It does not accept Elizabeth II as Queen of India, but recognizes her nevertheless as head of the Commonwealth...

...or will...

...We should strive to keep bulls out of this particular China shop...

...This is dramatized by the fact that one of the associates, India, has ceased to be monarchical and has become republican...