§ 15 and 16. Viscount SANDONasked the Secretary of State for Dominion 886 Affairs (1) whether the new status of the Governor-General of the Union of South Africa, as announced by the Prime Minister of the Union to come into effect on the 1st July next, will involve any difference between the status of this particular post and its counterpart in the other Dominions, and, if so, in what respect; whether any steps will be taken to bring them all into line; and whether any such formal changes have already taken place or are about to take place in the other Dominions;
(2) whether, in view of the declaration of the Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, despatches will no longer be sent to the Governor-General from his Department; and if he will state what is the position in other Dominions; and whether any new functionary will be established in that and other Dominions to carry on the continuity of correspondence and liaison with the United Kingdom when in the case of the Union it lapses on 1st July?
§ Mr. AMERYThe position of Governors-General in the Dominions was defined in Section IV (b) of the Report of the Inter-Imperial Relations Committee of the Imperial Conference of 1926. It will be seen from the passage in question that it was agreed that the Governor-General should cease to be the formal official channel of communication between His Majesty's Government in Great Britain and His Majesty's Government in any of the Dominions which desired that the existing practice should no longer be continued. In accordance with this agreement and the desire of His Majesty's Government in the Union of South Africa, official communications will not be addressed to the Governor-General after the 1st July, from which date the principle of direct communication between Government and Government takes effect.
A similar change has already been made in the case of official communications to His Majesty's Government in the Irish Free State as from the 1st May, and will be made in the case of such communications to His Majesty's Government in Canada as from the 1st July.
As regards the latter part of the second question (No. 16), I would refer my Noble Friend to Section VI of the Report of the Inter-Imperial Relations 887 Committee. As to the application of the principle laid down in that section, I cannot at present add anything to the replies which I gave him on the 14th February.