§ 72. Viscount BORODALEasked the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs whether he can indicate the attitude of New Zealand to the Statute of Westminster?
The SECRETARY of STATE for DOMINION AFFAIRS (Mr. J. H. Thomas)New Zealand has joined with the other Dominions in asking for the submission of the Statute of Westminster Bill to Parliament, and there is no need for me to remind the House of the loyal support which the great constitutional principle underlying the second preamble in the Bill has always received in New Zealand. But, as the Prime Minister of the Dominion stated in the Debates in the New Zealand Parliament on the Resolution asking for the submission of this Bill, New Zealand does not wish that her position should be affected, as the result of the passing of the Bill, unless and until the New Zealand Parliament decides to apply the provisions of the Statute to that Dominion. Mr. Forbes has made clear the paramount desire of New Zealand to maintain unaltered the existing relation between the Dominion and the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. MARJORIBANKSDoes that mean that the Statute is going to be a dead letter, as Lord Hailsham said?