Newfoundland Reverts to the Status of a Colony

1934 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 895-900 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. MacKay
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
British Empire ◽  
West Indian ◽  
Responsible Government ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
British Commonwealth ◽  
British Commonwealth Of Nations

Newfoundland, which proudly boasts that she is “Britain's oldest colony,” which has enjoyed responsible government since 1855, and which has been ranked by the Statute of Westminister as one of the Dominions of the British Commonwealth of Nations, voluntarily reverted to the status of a crown colony governed by a commission responsible to Whitehall. The event is without precedent in the history of the Empire. While certain West Indian colonies which have enjoyed representative assemblies have voluntarily given up their elected legislatures, no colony which had attained responsible government has ever before renounced it. The incident is sufficiently unique to be of interest alike to students of the history of the British Empire and of political science in general.

Is the British Commonwealth Withering Away?

1950 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 545-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. C. Wheare
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
Autonomous Communities ◽  
History Of ◽  
Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
British Commonwealth ◽  
British Commonwealth Of Nations

At a great crisis in the history of the American Commonwealth, Abraham Lincoln in a speech delivered in June, 1858, used these words: “If we could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it.” The British Commonwealth has reached a crisis in its affairs, but the nature of the crisis escapes the diagnosis of most students and many are inclined, therefore, to echo the words which Lincoln used nearly a hundred years ago. It seems worth while, accordingly, to set down as simply as possible some of the changes that have occurred in the structure and composition of the Commonwealth in recent years, in the hope that, on this basis, some judgment may be hazarded about “where we are and whither we are tending.”When the War ended in 1945 the British Commonwealth could still be described in the terms adopted almost twenty years before, at the Imperial Conference of 1926, as a group of “autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations.”

scholarly journals The Rethinking of Great Britain’s Role: From the World Empire to the Nation State

2019 ◽  
pp. 129-145
Author(s):  
O. Zernetska
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Global State ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
British Commonwealth ◽  
British Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
Different Parts

In the article, it is stated that Great Britain had been the biggest empire in the world in the course of many centuries. Due to synchronic and diachronic approaches it was detected time simultaneousness of the British Empire’s development in the different parts of the world. Different forms of its ruling (colonies, dominions, other territories under her auspice) manifested this phenomenon.The British Empire went through evolution from the First British Empire which was developed on the count mostly of the trade of slaves and slavery as a whole to the Second British Empire when itcolonized one of the biggest states of the world India and some other countries of the East; to the Third British Empire where it colonized countries practically on all the continents of the world. TheForth British Empire signifies the stage of its decomposition and almost total down fall in the second half of the 20th century. It is shown how the national liberation moments starting in India and endingin Africa undermined the British Empire’s power, which couldn’t control the territories, no more. The foundation of the independent nation state of Great Britain free of colonies did not lead to lossof the imperial spirit of its establishment, which is manifested in its practical deeds – Organization of the British Commonwealth of Nations, which later on was called the Commonwealth, Brexit and so on.The conclusions are drawn that Great Britain makes certain efforts to become a global state again.

The British Dominions and Neutrality

1940 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 737-749 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. McD. Clokie
Keyword(s):  
National Pride ◽  
The Status ◽  
Political Associations ◽  
Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
British Commonwealth ◽  
The Individual ◽  
British Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
War Power ◽  
Legal Consequences

Under the ordinary circumstances of peaceful relations with other states, the peculiar position of the Dominions in the British Commonwealth of Nations may be of little importance. Except to those insistent on the point of national pride, it makes little difference whether foreign Powers have or have not recognized the independent and sovereign character of the Dominions so long as they understand that the responsible governments with which they are dealing are the several ministries in the Dominions. Both external and internal autonomy has undoubtedly been attained by the Dominions in all normal peace-time affairs, and this situation has been recognized by other states. It matters little whether other states take seriously the symbolism of the Crown and the unity of the kingship or whether they regard these as among the odd aberrations of British illogicality. In war-time, however, a very different position is presented when one considers the status of the individual members of the Commonwealth.The sovereign rights of war and neutrality are not necessarily two aspects of the same power. The war power is capable of unilateral exercise; a state of war is brought into existence by the action of one state, and the legal consequences of belligerency follow automatically and indeed may be claimed by political associations or communities which are not recognized as sovereign states.

Constitutional Developments in Saorstát Eireann and the Constitution of Éire: I, External Affairs

1937 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 842-861 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur W. Bromage
Keyword(s):  
Free State ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
Good Government ◽  
The Status ◽  
Irish Free State ◽  
Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
British Commonwealth ◽  
British Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Under terms of the Treaty of 1921 between Great Britain and Ireland, it was agreed that: “Ireland shall have the same constitutional status in the Community of Nations known as the British Empire as the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa, with a Parliament having powers to make laws for the peace, order and good government of Ireland and an Executive responsible to that Parliament, and shall be styled and known as the Irish Free State.” The status of the Irish Free State was further defined by this language: “Subject to the provisions hereinafter set out, the position of the Irish Free State in relation to the Imperial Parliament and Government and otherwise shall be that of the Dominion of Canada, and the law, practice and constitutional usage governing the relationship of the Crown or the representative of the Crown and of the Imperial Parliament to the Dominion of Canada shall govern their relationship to the Irish Free State.” The Imperial Government gave this treaty the force of law by the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act of March 31, 1922. To implement the treaty, Dáil Eireann, sitting as a constituent assembly, enacted a constitution for the Irish Free State in 1922. This constitution declared: “The Irish Free State (otherwise hereinafter called or sometimes called Saorstát Eireann) is a co-equal member of the Community of Nations forming the British Commonwealth of Nations.” It was given the force of law by the Imperial Government in the Irish Free State Constitution Act of December 5, 1922.

The British Commonwealth of Nations

1953 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 997-1015 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Duncan Hall
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Long Range ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
International Organization ◽  
Common Concern ◽  
Historical Continuity ◽  
The Family ◽  
Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
British Commonwealth ◽  
British Commonwealth Of Nations

The British Commonwealth of Nations is the oldest international organization of states in existence. Its uniqueness lies in its unbroken historical continuity, the loyalty of its members to each other, their solidarity on vital matters of common concern, the fluidity of their machinery for dealing with such matters, and their abhorrence of constitutional contracts within the family of the Commonwealth. These are its features so far as we can see them yet in the perspective of history. This article will discuss some of these features and advance an hypothesis for research on the nature of Commonwealth.Continuity, with change but without revolution, has been the British political formula for the Commonwealth. The evolution of the Commonwealth was one of the long-range consequences of the American Revolution. In a broad historical sense the Commonwealth is the lesson that Britain drew from that revolution. There have been other examples in history, such as Rome and Spain, of the expansion overseas of a people and of its concepts, language, traditions, and institutions. But only in the case of the Commonwealth has historical continuity been maintained without catastrophic change or revolution. It is true that revolution severed the main branch of the first British Empire. The cause of that revolution was the still unresolved deadlock between executive and legislature which had caused the revolt under Cromwell in the preceding century.

scholarly journals “A Fundamental Human Right”? Mixed-Race Marriage and the Meaning of Rights in the Postwar British Commonwealth

2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 655-684
Author(s):  
Jon Piccini ◽  
Duncan Money
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Marriage And Family ◽  
Interracial Marriages ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
British Commonwealth

AbstractThis article explores the removal or exclusion in the late 1940s of people in interracial marriages from two corners of the newly formed Commonwealth of Nations, Australia and Britain's southern African colonies. The stories of Ruth and Sereste Khama, exiled from colonial Botswana, and those of Chinese refugees threatened with deportation and separation from their white Australian wives, reveal how legal rearticulations in the immediate postwar era created new, if quixotic, points of opposition for ordinary people to make their voices heard. As the British Empire became the Commonwealth, codifying the freedoms of the imperial subject, and ideas of universal human rights “irrespective of race, color, or creed” slowly emerged, and claims of rights long denied seemed to take on a renewed meaning. The sanctity of marriage and family, which played central metaphorical and practical roles for both the British Empire and the United Nations, was a primary motor of contention in both cases, and was mobilized in both metaphorical and practical ways to press for change. Striking similarities between our chosen case studies reveal how ideals of imperial domesticity and loyalty, and the universalism of the new global “family of man,” were simultaneously invoked to undermine discourses of racial purity. Our analysis makes a significant contribution to studies of gender and empire, as well as the history of human rights, an ideal which in the late 1940s was being vernacularized alongside existing forms of claim-making and political organization in local contexts across the world.

scholarly journals Address of the president Sir Henry Dale, C. B. E. Anniversary Meeting, 30 November 1942

1943 ◽  
Vol 131 (864) ◽  
pp. 204-206
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Material Structure ◽  
Isaac Newton ◽  
Written Form ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mechanical Interpretation ◽  
Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
British Commonwealth ◽  
British Commonwealth Of Nations ◽  
The Universe

We are to-day within a few weeks of the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Isaac Newton. Wherever the progress of our Western science and philosophy has become effective, men will remember what that event was to mean for the world. Newton, as we shall hear, at the age of 43, when he had determined to abandon all further concern with natural philosophy, was induced at length, by Halley’s friendly insistence, to give written form and system to the mathematical discoveries with which his amazing mind had been occupied over a period of some twenty years. The result was one of the greatest intellectual achievements in the history of mankind—the Principia , providing for more than two centuries a framework for the mechanical interpretation of the universe and a basis for the building of physical science, and therewith of the material structure of our modern civiliza­tion. We in Britain regard Isaac Newton as still, beyond challenge, the greatest of our men of science. Nor should the claim be limited to this island or to the British Commonwealth of Nations; for it was not till nearly half a century after Newton’s death that former British colonists in North America began their development of an independent nation; and Newton is theirs as well as ours.

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