Imperial Federation: The Problem of National Unity

by George R. Parkin

But in approaching the study of possible plans we are met by a primary consideration.

There are clearly two ways in which national unity might be attained. One would be by a great act of constructive statesmanship, such as that which gave a constitution to the United States, that which confederated Canada, that which is doing the same for Australia, that which in other states has changed an old system for a new. Such an effort is what people have undertaken when they saw before them a great national problem, knew distinctly what they wished to accomplish, and were ready to run the risks always involved in radical change for the sake of the end to be obtained by new organization. To make such an effort requires statesmen with courage to lead, and with judgment to plan so as to command public approval; courage and judgment such as {302} those which unified Germany and Italy, or those which federated the United States and Canada. On a smaller scale we have in the history of the United Kingdom examples of this bold and definite statesmanship, as opposed to slow constitutional growth and change, in the acts of Union with Ireland and Scotland, or in the Reform Bills of half a century ago which gave to the vast but newly-formed industrial centres their true weight in the government of the country. To make decisive constitutional changes to meet distinct national necessities is strictly in keeping with our political traditions. An attempt to federate the Empire by a great act of political reconstruction would therefore differ from other events in our history not so much in kind as in degree. If the task to be undertaken seems great, we must remember that it would be faced in order to deal with facts of national growth and change without precedent in human history.

It can scarcely be denied that at any time circumstances may arise which would almost compel such an act of reconstruction. The demand of a single great colony to know the terms on which it might remain within the Empire as an alternative to independence would make the question practical at once. A great struggle for national safety or national existence would probably have the same effect. That the public mind should be prepared to deal intelligently with such a question is the strongest reason for the careful education of popular opinion on all matters relating to our national position.

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There is, however, another very different method by which the object in view may be attained or at least approached with the prospect of final attainment. Instead of radical change and reconstruction we may look to a policy of gradual but steady adaptation of existing national machinery to the new work which must be done.

This method commends itself more especially to thinkers in the mother-land, who are accustomed to consider that the supreme merit of the British institution consists in the fact that it is not a written rule,—not a system struck off at white heat by the efforts of legislators, but is, in the main, the result of a progressive historical development. To them further progress would seem safer if pursued on similar lines. The policy seems of less consequence to colonists, living as they do in countries going through rapid changes, and lending themselves more readily to new organization.

The ideal of Federation which naturally presents itself to the mind is one which provides a supreme Parliament or Council, national not merely in name but in reality, because containing in just proportion representatives of all the self-governing communities of the Empire. Such a body, relegating the management of local affairs to local Governments, and devoting its attention to a clearly defined range of purely Imperial concerns, would seem to satisfy a great national necessity. It would secure representation for all the great interests of the Empire, it {304} would bring together those best fitted to give advice on Imperial matters, and it would be free from that overwhelming responsibility for petty administration which now paralyzes, and at times renders ridiculous, the supreme council of the greatest nation in the world.

This, it seems to me, is the ideal which must be kept in view as the ultimate goal of our national aspiration and effort. It is a reasonable ideal, one which, as we have seen, long since commended itself to the philosophic mind of Adam Smith, and which has today, under the changed conditions of intercourse, infinitely more to justify it, and infinitely less to hinder its attainment than in his time. Even Burke, to whom it also occurred as a reasonable political conception, would have hesitated to employ the phrase, opposuit natura, with which he dismissed it, could he have grasped the possibility of what steam and the telegraph have done during the last half century. The realization of some such an ideal as this—a common representative body, Parliament or Council, directing the common policy of the Empire, while absolute independence of local government is secured for the various members—may fairly be looked upon as the only ultimate alternative to national disintegration, the only thing which can fully satisfy our Anglo-Saxon instincts of self-government, and give finality to our political system.

Meanwhile I have found that practical statesmen throughout the Empire, even those most devoted to {305} the cause of national unity, while recognizing that the difficulties constantly tend to diminish, look upon the immediate realization of this ideal as impracticable, or as involving too great a political effort, too sweeping a change in the existing machinery of national government. They turn themselves to the consideration of measures which will by gradual steps and a process of constitutional growth lead up to the desired end.

Prominent among such measures must be placed the proposal to summon periodical conferences of duly qualified representatives of the great colonies to consult with the home government and with each other on all questions of common concern. The public recognition of the right of consultation, the formal summoning of such conferences by the Head of the State, would of itself be a signal proof to the outside world of the reality of national unity, a decisive step towards its complete attainment. By bringing the leading statesmen of the colonies from time to time into immediate contact with those of the mother-land, the opportunity would be furnished for that personal understanding which becomes more and more necessary in the conduct of politics and diplomacy. In proportion as dignity is given to these conferences, and as their decisions are carried into effect, their influence on the policy of the Empire would increase till, it is believed, they would either themselves develop into an adequate Federal council, or would have gained an authority and experience entitling them to indicate the lines on which such a council could be created.