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Community of the Parliaments of the English-Speaking Peoples: First Steps
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
Extract
In the past year and a half, first steps have been taken toward the building up of a community of the parliamentarians of the English-speaking peoples. The development in the past thirty-two years of a community of the parliamentarians of the British Commonwealth to the point where it has become a central institution of the Commonwealth was dealt with in a previous article.
A Shrine of Family Reunion. Those who were present in the Canadian House of Commons at Ottawa on June 26, 1943, at the first conference between a duly appointed delegation from both houses of the American Congress and delegations from the Parliaments of the British Commonwealth felt that they were witnessing an important event; it was a development, they believed, which might prove hardly less important in history than the obscure first meetings of knights of the shire and burgesses out of which parliamentary institutions emerged in the thirteenth century. A remark in the last moments of the Conference by Mr. Sol Bloom, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the United States House of Representatives, expressed this feeling. He spoke of the room as “a shrine of family reunion”; the thought had come to him, he said, that this room in which this historic first conference had been held should be made a shrine, for within those four walls ideas had come forth that day that should lay everlasting foundations for the future of the peoples of the world.
- Type
- Foreign Government and Politics
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © American Political Science Association 1944
References
1 “Community of the Parliaments of the British Commonwealth,” in this Review, Vol. 36, pp. 1128–1135 (Dec., 1942).
2 This latter meeting was an outcome of an invitation given by Senator Connally at the final meeeting of the Conference. Eleven leading members of the British Commonwealth delegations returned with the Congress delegation for the purpose. The meeting took the form of a two-hour luncheon discussion, with members of the Foreign Relations and Foreign Affairs Committees and other members of Congress. It was convened by Senator Connally and Congressman Sol Bloom, and presided over by the former.
3 Among the more important of these occasions were the historic first addresses of a British Prime Minister to Congress (December 26, 1941, and May 19, 1943); Mr. Anthony Eden's meeting, March 19, 1943, with the Foreign Relations and Foreign Affairs Committees of Congress (of which, because of its “parliamentary character,” he gave a “special account” to the House of Commons on April 8, 1943); and the visit in February, 1944, of a British Parliamentary delegation on its way to the West Indies, and of a similar delegation on its way to Australia. The New Zealand Prime Minister, Mr. Peter Fraser, and the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Walter Nash, took part in the latter meeting on March 17, 1944.
What was in effect a conference of governments and of parliamentary leaders took place on June 24, 1942, when a strong Congressional delegation met in the Pacific War Council with President Roosevelt and three British Commonwealth Parliamentary leaders—Mr.Churchill, , Mr.King, Mackenzie, and Mr.Nash, Walter (New York Times, June 25, 1942).Google Scholar
4 Cong. Rec., Vol. 89, No. 126 (July 3, 1943), p. 7149.
5 Attendance of delegates from other British Commonwealth Parliaments was not possible, owing largely to difficulties of wartime transport.
6 Cong. Rec. (Senate), June 18, 1943. The resolution passed the House of Representatives on June, 22.
7 Senator Walter F. George (Democrat, Georgia), chairman of the Finance Committee of the Senate, who was also a member of the delegation, was prevented by official business from attending.
8 In accordance with the unbroken custom of these informal gatherings of Parliamentarians, the press was not admitted and no report has been published. A full verbatim Report of Proceedings of the whole Conference was, however, printed and privately circulated under the authority of the Empire Parliamentary Association (Dominion of Canada Branch).
9 House of Commons Debates, July 29, 1943, Vol. LXXXI, No. 99.
10 Summary of Congressional Proceedings, U.S.A., Vol. 1, No. 1, issued under the authority of the Empire Parliamentary Association (United Kingdom and Dominion of Canada Branches); published by the Oxford University Press, Toronto, Canada. The first number appeared in May, 1944, and dealt with debates from September to December, 1943.
11 Report of United Kingdom Delegates upon the Parliamentary Visit and Conference, Dominion of Canada, including a Congressional Reception in Washington, D. C., and a Subsequent Visit to Bermuda (June–July, 1943.) (Printed for private circulation.) For the discussions of June 29 and July 7 in Canada, see Journal of the Parliaments of the Empire, Vol. XXIV, pp. 568–571. For the discussion on November 12 in the British Parliament, see ibid., pp. 752–757.
12 The resolution, which is still before Congress and will be acted upon probably after the presidential election in November, was moved by Major A. N. Braithwaite. It reads as follows: “This House, desiring to promote closer association between the British Parliament and the Congress of the United States, requests Mr. Speaker, on its behalf, to invite the Congress of the United States to send a delegation of its members to visit Parliament at as early a date as may be convenient.” See Cong. Rec. (Senate), Vol. 90, p. 3198 (Mar. 28).
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