The New Hebrides, The Anglo-French Condominium of Australian External Territories: Norfolk Island, Coral Sea Islands Territory, The Australian Antarctic Territory, Heard Island and THE CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT T OF THE COMMONWEALTH HE present Commonwealth as a free association of sovereign nations is the outcome of the development of self-government in the older British Dominions and, more immediately, of their demand during the First World War for an equally full control of their own foreign policy. Recognition was given to this in the resolution of the Imperial War Conference 1917, that 'the constitutional relations of the component parts of the Empire... should be based upon a full recognition of the Dominions as autonomous nations of an Imperial Commonwealth'. Accordingly, the Dominions* and India signed the Versailles Peace Treaty individually, and had their own representation in the League of Nations. The Inter-Imperial Relations Committee of the 1926 Imperial Conference, under the Chairmanship of Lord Balfour, made the first formal attempt to describe the resultant status and mutual relationship of the Members in what came to be known as the 'Balfour formula'. The Committee's report declared that "They are 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'. This principle was legally formulated in the Statute of Westminster of 1931 which gave effect to this fully independent status of the Dominions in relation to Great Britain and, by implication, in relation to each other. The progress which India had already made towards a similar status was completed in 1947 when India and Pakistan§ became independent and Members of the Commonwealth. The Second World War had hastened this development with the remaining dependencies and the next two decades saw Ceylon become independent and a Member of the Commonwealth in 1948, then Ghana and Malaya in 1957, Nigeria and Cyprus in 1960†, Sierra Leone and Tanganyika in 1961, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uganda in 1962, Zanzibar and Kenya, together with Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore (as parts of the Federation of Malaysia) in 1963‡, Malawi, Malta and Zambia in 1964, The Gambia in 1965, Guyana (formerly British Guiana), Botswana (formerly the Bechuanaland Protectorate), Lesotho (formerly Basutoland) and Barbados in 1966, Mauritius and Swaziland in 1968, Fiji in 1970, the Bahamas in 1973 and Grenada in 1974. Nauru became independent in 1968 and joined the Commonwealth as a 'special member'. Western Samoa became independent in 1962 and a Commonwealth member in 1970. Tonga became an independent member of the Commonwealth on 4th June 1970. • Other than Newfoundland. § Pakistan left the Commonwealth in 1972 when Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) became a member. † Cyprus became a member of the Commonwealth six months after her Independence, i.e. in March 1961. Singapore subsequently became independent as a separate state by her secession from the Federation of Malaysia in 1965. |