England, Canada and the Great War

by L. G. Desjardins

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. Bourassa 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 constitutional 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, nobody 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 participate 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 constitutionally 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 constitutional 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.