Kevin,
I don't think we have any disagreement. I said "separate" nations, not
"independent." The independence of Canada and Australia were undoubtedly
evolutionary rather than sudden. However, Canada celebrates its nationhood from
1867 and Australia its from 1901, not from the Statute of Westminster of 1931.
It's all a matter of semantics as to how much independence is independence and
just which step makes it complete enough to count. That's par for the course
when constitutions are granted by the mother country rather than ordained by the
governed in the republican style.
Lowell G. McManus
Leesville, Louisiana, USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Meynell" <knm@...>
To: <BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 5:07 PM
Subject: Re: [BoundaryPoint] Timely article about IE (ROI?)-UK
> Lowell,
>
> >Would you argue that Canada, Australia, Belize, and dozens more members of
> >the Commonwealth aren't separate nations?
>
> They are now, but legally they weren't before 1931. Australia, Canada,
> South Africa and Ireland originally only had dominion status and retained
> significant constitutional ties to the UK. The Commonwealth Conference of
> 1931 established the principle of a 'Commonwealth of Nations', which is
> when the dominions can rightly be said to have become independent
> countries, albeit with a common head of state. However, unlike the other
> dominions, the Irish Free State never ratified the accord and instead moved
> towards becoming an independent republic by adopting a new constitution in
> 1937.
>
> Even then, the UK still technically retained certain legislative powers in
> Canada and Australia which were finally only abolished in 1980 and 1986
> respectively. For this reason, some people claim that they didn't become
> independent countries until those dates, but as these powers were rarely
> exercised, and only at the request of those countries, I don't think these
> claims can be seriously entertained.
>
> The other Commonwealth countries such as Belize, were colonies or
> protectorates and were granted outright independence at various times
> between 1947 and 1997.
>
> >If commercial laws and taxes differ at all between or among the member
> >nations, then smuggling is free to be practiced and entirely to be expected.
>
> It has to be remembered that the partition of Ireland was rather messy and
> many properties ended-up straggling what became an international frontier.
> Even if there were efforts to regulate the border, there are plenty of
> cross-border barns for moving people and goods ;-)
>
> Regards,
>
> Kevin Meynell
>
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