Commonwealth, a loose, voluntary association of Great Britain and most of its former colonies; 49 independent nations - about one-quarter of the world's population - pledged (according to a 1971 declaration of principles) to consult and co-operate in furthering world peace, social understanding, racial equality and economic development. The Commonwealth Secretariat (established 1965) administers programs of co-operation, arranges meetings and provides specialist services to member countries. The British monarch is head of the Commonwealth, a purely symbolic role.
The roots of the Commonwealth are frequently traced back as far as the DURHAM REPORT (1839) and RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT in the 1840s. By 1867 the British North American provinces, as well as other British colonies in Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, were self-governing with respect to internal affairs. With CONFEDERATION in 1867, Canada became the first federation in the British Empire; its size, economic strength and seniority enabled it to become a leader in the widening of colonial autonomy and the transformation of the empire into a commonwealth of equal nations.
Contingents from all the self-governing colonies freely participated in the SOUTH AFRICAN WAR from 1899-1902. Canada sent only volunteers, and Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid LAURIER made it clear at Colonial and Imperial Conferences in 1902, 1907 and 1911 that participation in imperial defence would always be on Canadian terms. In 1914 the king declared war on behalf of the entire empire, but the Dominions (a term applied to Canada in 1867 and used in the first half of this century to describe the empire's other self-governing members) decided individually the nature and extent of their participation. They gave generously: over a million men from the Dominions and 1.5 million from India enlisted in the forces of the empire. There were also huge contributions of food, money and munitions. Although South African nationalists (Afrikaners) and many French Canadians opposed participation in a distant British war, the unity of the empire in WORLD WAR I was impressive.
Despite the extent of their WWI commitment, the Dominions at first played no part in the making of high policy. But Canadian Prime Minister Sir Robert BORDEN was especially critical when the war did not go well. When David Lloyd George became British prime minister in late 1916, he immediately convened an Imperial War Conference and created an Imperial War Cabinet, 2 separate bodies which met in 1917 and 1918. The former was remembered primarily for Resolution IX, which stated that the Dominions were "autonomous nations of an Imperial Commonwealth" with a "right ... to an adequate voice in foreign policy and in foreign relations...." This was chiefly an initiative of Prime Minister Borden, carried at the conference with the help of General J.C. Smuts of South Africa, and it marked the first official use of the term "Commonwealth."
The Imperial War Cabinet gave leaders from the Dominions and India an opportunity to be informed, consulted and made to feel a part of the making of high-level policy. A similar body, the British Empire Delegation, was constructed at the Paris Peace Conference. Borden and Australian Prime Minister W.M. Hughes also successfully fought for separate Dominion representation at the conference and separate signatures on the Treaty of VERSAILLES. Constitutionally, however, the empire was still a single unit: Lloyd George's was the signature that counted. The Dominions, now members of the new LEAGUE OF NATIONS, remained ambiguous creatures - part nation, part colony, part imperial colleague.
The war pulled each Dominion in apparently opposite directions: widespread hopes for greater imperial unity clashed with intensified feelings of national pride and distinctiveness which resulted from wartime sacrifice and achievement. Borden, a nationalist who wished to enhance Canada's growing international status through commitment to a great empire-commonwealth, tried to reconcile the 2 impulses. He sought a closely knit commonwealth of equal nations that would consult and act together on the big issues of common concern. Resolution IX had called for a postwar conference to readjust constitutional relations along these lines. It was never held.
A nationalism quite different from Borden's took control of the Commonwealth in the 1920s. Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie KING was the heir to Laurier's policy of "no commitments." The CHANAK AFFAIR and the HALIBUT TREATY set the tone, and King was a clear winner at the Imperial Conference of 1923. A trend away from imperial diplomatic unity and towards a devolved, autonomous relationship between Britain and the Dominions was established. King believed that the British connection could be maintained only if it allowed Canadians, particularly the substantial minority of non-British descent, to concentrate on developing a strong N American nation. He was not alone in wishing to emphasize diplomatic autonomy, although the reasons differed. The British had little wish for a co-operative Anglo-Dominion foreign policy that would require the Foreign Office to engage in time-consuming consultation with much smaller powers. South Africa and the Irish Free State, which were granted Dominion status on the Canadian model in 1921, were even more radical than King in pushing for decentralization.
At the Imperial Conference of 1926, South African Prime Minister General J.B.M. Hertzog demanded a public declaration that the Dominions were independent states equal in status to Britain and separately entitled to international recognition. King opposed the word "independent," which might conjure up unhappy visions of the American Revolution in pro-British parts of Canada, but he endorsed the thrust of Hertzog's demand. The conference adopted the BALFOUR REPORT, which led to the passage of the STATUTE OF WESTMINSTER in 1931, establishing the theoretical right of the Dominions to full legislative autonomy.
The Commonwealth of the 1930s was a study in contradiction, a mixture of the national and the imperial, and confusing to outsiders. To some extent Commonwealth countries conducted their own external affairs and managed their own defences. Yet a common head of state, common citizenship and substantial common legislation remained. Association with a vast and apparently powerful empire - then at its greatest extent, covering over 31 million square km - brought the Dominions prestige, prosperity and protection. The OTTAWA AGREEMENTS of 1932, although falling far short of creating the self-sufficient unit some had dreamed about, bound Commonwealth countries tighter in an interlocking series of bilateral trading agreements. There was also substantial military co-operation, of enormous benefit to the Dominions' fledgling ARMED FORCES. Newfoundland, proudly "Britain's oldest colony," had long had responsible government, was represented at Colonial and Imperial Conferences and had fought with distinction in WWI, but financial crisis brought about the return of British rule from 1934 to 1949, at which time it became part of Canada.
Dependence and gratitude did not necessarily lead to commitment, and in peacetime the Dominions were wary of European entanglements. When Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, Australia and New Zealand did not hesitate to become involved in WORLD WAR II. Canada waited one week before Parliament endorsed the King government's decision to fight. South Africans split on the issue and Prime Minister Hertzog resigned, but the final response was positive. Only Eire (as the Irish Free State became in 1937) stayed aloof. Immense contributions of men - over 2 million from the 4 Dominions and 2.5 million from India - and material were made. The BRITISH COMMONWEALTH AIR TRAINING PLAN, which trained 131 553 aircrew, was a major Canadian contribution. Such efforts were all the more important and valued because the Dominions alone fought at Britain's side from the first day to the last. But there was no Imperial War Cabinet this time, no Commonwealth consensus on the need to strengthen ties. British power was waning and Dominion confidence was on the rise, weakening traditional links. Britain's subject peoples in Africa and Asia also looked increasingly to themselves for solutions to their problems.
By 1949 the Commonwealth was completely transformed. Eire left in 1948. India, which had been lurching towards responsible government and Dominion status for decades, achieved independence in 1947, although at a price: it was divided on religious grounds into the Dominions of India and Pakistan. Neighbouring Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Burma (Myanmar since 1989) achieved independence in 1947-48, the former obtaining Dominion status and choosing Commonwealth membership. In 1949 India was allowed to remain in the Commonwealth after declaring itself a republic. The British monarch was declared "the symbol of the free association of its member nations, and as such Head of the Commonwealth." The Commonwealth was no longer predominantly white and British; allegiance to a common crown was no longer a prerequisite of membership, and the concept of common citizenship was fading fast.
There were high hopes for the "multiracial" Commonwealth, which many believed could be a force and example for understanding among nations. A bigger grouping, however, was more difficult to keep together, particularly when members were moving more than ever before in different directions, partly in order to develop responses to a COLD WAR world dominated by hostility between the US and USSR. Britain began the long road to eventual membership (1973) in the European Economic Community, to the consternation of much of the older Commonwealth. Canada, Australia and New Zealand looked increasingly to the US as an ally and trading partner. India preached the doctrine of nonalignment with either of the superpowers. The SUEZ CRISIS of 1956, over which the Commonwealth was badly split, underlined the decline of Britain's power and gave rise to questions about its judgement and morality in the bargain.
But the Commonwealth did not die. As former British dependencies achieved self-government and took responsibility for their own external relations, it became customary to say that they had "achieved independence," and might or might not "join the Commonwealth" as monarchies or republics. Most did join. The decade after 1957 was one of dramatic growth: virtually all the colonies of British Africa, joined by 4 in the Caribbean, one in Asia and 2 in the Mediterranean, won their independence and became Commonwealth members. So did Bangladesh, on declaring independence from Pakistan in 1971; Pakistan then left the Commonwealth.
The multiracial composition of the postwar Commonwealth has affected both the politics and the policies of the UK. Pressure about its racial policies from Commonwealth colleagues (especially from Canada's PM John DIEFENBAKER) led to the withdrawal of South Africa in 1961. Until well into the 1960s, Britain was led by its Commonwealth connections to maintain an open-door policy towards immigrants from the Asian Commonwealth and the West Indies. When Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence in 1965 to continue white-settler supremacy, Commonwealth states exerted great pressure on Britain to ensure that international recognition would not be granted unless black majority rule was conceded. Only in 1980, when that condition had been satisfied, was the state's independence legalized; Rhodesia (as Zimbabwe) became a member of the Commonwealth.
The very idea of such an amorphous institution arouses an easy cynicism in Canada, when it is thought of at all. P.E. TRUDEAU was a cynic when he became prime minister in 1968, but he quickly became a believer. Trudeau played an important role in the 1971 heads-of-government meeting, when the future of the Commonwealth was in question because Britain wished to sell arms to South Africa. The Commonwealth in the 1980s has had its share of crises including the Falklands War (1982), the military takeover in Nigeria (1983) and the Grenadan invasion (1983). South Africa continues to be a bone of contention, as shown by its importance at the October 1987 meeting of Commonwealth leaders in Vancouver. Canadian leaders and diplomats have played a prominent role throughout Commonwealth history (Arnold SMITH, for example, was the Commonwealth's first secretary general), not simply in helping to create an international institution, but in keeping it together in moments of stress.
One of the Commonwealth's great attractions is that it gives members a forum for making themselves and their views known, and gives access to an expanding network of economic, social and educational programs - without demanding uniformity of outlook or purpose in return. The COLOMBO PLAN of 1950 was a pioneering effort in development assistance. The Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation (founded 1971) is now the chief means of giving aid to developing countries, Canada providing more than 40% of the budget. The Commonwealth co-operates in ways which would never have been possible in the old days of empire. Today unofficial and official links are in the thousands - from regular meetings of the heads of government, and of their ministers and officials, to agencies such as the Commonwealth Youth Program, Commonwealth Scholarships and the COMMONWEALTH GAMES.
AUTHOR: NORMAN HILLMER
READING: Norman Hillmer and P. Wigley, eds, The First British Commonwealth (1980); N. Mansergh, The Commonwealth Experience (2 vols, 1982); A. Smith, Stitches in Time (1981); P. Wigley, Canada and the Transition to Commonwealth (1977).
