COMMONWEALTH: Third Empire

(British Commonwealth of Nations)

Apropos of the Imperial Conference (TIME, Nov. 1 et seq.) which continued its sessions in camera last week, Premier Baldwin said:

“Great Britain has lost her Little Empire, the Thirteen Colonies; but she now holds firmly her Second Empire, our glorious Commonwealth. We are on the way to our Third Empire, an empire with great pioneering tasks before it. . . .”

By this none too lucid metaphor the Premier referred with intentional vagueness to one of the chief problems of the Imperial Conference: how to grant the Dominions the freedom they ask yet retain them within the Commonwealth. Last week a notable pioneering step was taken when, with the consent of the Imperial Conference, the Canadian Government appointed the Hon. Vincent Massey to be its Minister Plenipotentiary Extraordinary to the U. S.

The new Minister will place Canada on a diplomatic equality with the Irish Free State which has stolen a march on the Dominions by appointing long since its own Minister at Washington. All parts of the Commonwealth are of course still represented by the British Ambassador at Washington—a shadow of empire. (Reputedly the Union of South Africa will soon appoint a Minister to the Netherlands.)

Vincent Massey. Born 39 years ago, young Vincent Massey was graduatedfrom the University of Toronto in 1910, and later journeyed to reside at Balliol College, Oxford, until he won an M. A. Well-to-do, he accepted a post on the faculty of the University of Toronto and led for a time a graceful existence. As administrator of the Massey Educational Fund left by his grandfather he enjoys the distinction of being culturally a power. Upon quitting the University some years ago he became President of the Massey-Harris Company, from which he resigned to become Minister without Portfolio in the Cabinet of Premier King (1925).

Such a man, rich, cultured, a Liberal yet “conservative,” may be expected to proceed cautiously at Washington with his duties as one of those who will erect Britain’s Third Empire.