What was the significance of the 1926 Imperial Conference?

Arthur Balfour was 78 when he chaired the Committee established at the 1926 Imperial Conference to report on Inter-Imperial Relations. The Balfour Committee held discussions over 15 meetings from Wednesday 27 October to Friday 19 November. The Committee rejected the idea of a written Constitution, preferring the idea of implicit rather than explicit constitutional guidelines and guarantees. Balfour opened the meeting by stating that WW1 had left the Empire undefined. In the report Balfour wrote that the Dominions' tendency towards equality of status was both right and inevitable' and that geographic and historic differences meant that this could not be achieved by a federation of nations within the Empire, but had to be sought 'by the way of autonomy'. Balfour declared that the British Empire

Depends essentially, if not formally, on positive ideals. Free institutions are its lifeblood. Free co-operation is its instrument. Peace, security and progress are among its objects ... And though every Dominion is now, and must always remain, the sole judge of the nature and extent of its co-operation, no common cause will, in our opinion, be thereby imperilled. Equality of status, so far as Britain and the Dominions are concerned, is thus the root principle governing our Inter-Imperial Relations. 

Equality of status, so far as Britain and the Dominions are concerned, is thus the root principle governing our Inter-Imperial Relations. The report recognized the equal status of legislation passed by Dominion parliaments with British legislation. The result being that British Parliament only enacted laws applying to a Dominion with the consent of that Dominion's government. “The definition of dominion status had been hammered out; as a result, and despite the ambiguities of the definition, the dominions could now claim to be truly independent nations and if they so desired, secede from the Empire itself”.  Balfour also stated in the report that:

It is the right of the Government of each Dominion to advise the Crown on all matters relating to its own affairs. Consequently, it would not be in accordance with constitutional practice for advice to be tendered to His Majesty by His Majesty's Government ... [on a Dominion matter] against the views of the Government of that Dominion.

This soon had a direct effect in Australia during the 1930 Imperial Conference. Labor Prime Minister, James Scullin recommended the appointment of Sir Isaac Isaacs as the next Governor-General to King George V advised by the British government, rather than following the custom of this choice being made by the King. The Balfour report was accepted in full by the 1926 Imperial Conference and filled its purpose of laying down fundamental principles guiding the relations between the countries of the British Commonwealth.

Finally dominions were progressing as independent nations and were able to obtain a surprisingly liberal definition of their status. This conference was significant to all countries in the commonwealth  as it offered them a path to independent nationhood. The British Commonwealth accepted the principles supporting the autonomy of the self-governing Dominions and international recognition of the free and equal status of the Dominion members was affirmed within the British Commonwealth. The law enacting these principles was the Statute of Westminster in 1931, which set out as law the independence of the governments of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Eire and Newfoundland. These had become self-governing Dominions of Britain, rather than colonies, but what this meant constitutionally had never been made clear. Britain's Statute of Westminster, was the legal recognition of the evolved independence of the Dominions within the British Commonwealth. It defined the equal status of the Dominion Parliaments with the British Parliament, and established that the Dominions were under the authority of the Crown, and not the government, of Britain. This was a major landmark in the shift from the notion of the 'British Empire' to the 'British Commonwealth of Nations'-from colonial status to national independence. “The Imperial Conference of 1926 marked the end of an era. Its main achievement was that it brought imperial constitutional theory into line with practice.” 

Throughout the 1920s Canada continued to lead the way in promoting greater independence in foreign relations for the dominions of the British Empire. Through the Chanak Crisis and the Halibut Treaty to the Imperial Conference of 1926 where the autonomy and equal status of the members of the Empire became more and more clearly stated. At this conference the radical position was pushed by the Irish Free State and South Africa. The latter wanted a written definition of the status of the dominions that would recognize their independence. Mackenzie King, prime minister of Canada, felt this was going too far and helped to draft the compromise declaration.

King's major goal at the conference was to change the status of the Governor General. He was successful in having the Governor General limited to being the representative only of the monarch in Canada, not of the British government as well. To fill the latter role, Britain in 1928 appointed a high commissioner to Canada, who functioned as any other diplomatic representative. With the increasing recognition of Canadian autonomy, it was obvious that Canada would need an expanded foreign service, both at home and abroad. This quickly became evident to, under-secretary Oscar Douglas Skelton, one of only three officers in the Department of External Affairs. “Skelton firmly believed in Canadian autonomy in international affairs and he was convinced that a stronger department of external affairs, a professional Foreign Service and separate diplomatic representation for Canada were essential instruments for that purpose.” Even his immense capacity for work was insufficient. Skelton began the process of recruiting new officers bringing into the department qualified candidates like Lester Pearson, who would go on to serve as external affairs minister and prime minister.

Canada also appointed its first diplomatic representatives to foreign countries. Although a high commissioner had been in place in London since 1880, that position became more important with the change in status of the Governor General. In 1927 Vincent Massey was appointed minister in Washington, filling a long-felt need. There was no question of placing him under the authority of the British ambassador; he was a fully independent representative of Canada. Although Britain had long opposed such action as violating the diplomatic unity of the Empire, that argument was no longer valid in light of the status of the dominions as defined by the 1926 Imperial Conference.

Recognizing the importance of France for Canada, King raised the status of the Commissioner General in Paris, Philippe Roy, to that of minister in 1928. In 1929 he added a legation in Japan to handle the sensitive issue of Japanese immigration. Canada was making a cautious entrance onto the world stage. These appointments were reciprocated by the sending of American, French and Japanese envoys to Ottawa. Not everyone was pleased by this development. Diehard imperialists were appalled, but the Empire was evolving into the Commonwealth, and thanks to the 1926 Imperial Conference, no one could turn back the clock.

The term Commonwealth itself implied an equality of status and would gradually displace the use of the term Empire. “What made the difference in 1926 was the role of Canada, Canada’s determination to push for a thoroughgoing reappraisal of the constitutional relationship between Britain and the dominions tipped the balance in favor of change.”  The document of the 1926 Imperial Conference declared the United Kingdom and its Dominions equal in status in all matters of internal and external affairs. This replaced the principle of a hierarchical relationship with one of 'autonomous communities within the British empire, equal in status ... and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations'.

Bibliography

R. M Dawson The Development of Dominion Status, 1900-1936  (1965)

D Judd Balfour & the British Empire (1968)

D Judd Empire (1996)

N Mansergh The Commonwealth Experience. - Vol.2: From British to multiracial Commonwealth (1982)

W. D McIntyre Colonies into Commonwealth  (1974)

A. P Thornton The Imperial Idea and its Enemies: a Study in British Power  (1959)

Websites

Skeltons Boys                                                                                                

Imperial Conference 1926  

---