Balfour report

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Arthur Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour (1922)

The Balfour Report is a declaration drawn up in 1926 by a committee to redefine relations within the British Empire , which was finally discussed as a document in October / November of that year at the London Conference (1926) and then adopted. Participants in the conference were the Prime Minister of the British "motherland" and his colleagues from the self-governing Dominions of Canada , Newfoundland , the Irish Free State , the Union of South Africa , Australia and New Zealand . The former British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary chaired the meetingLord Balfour . From him comes the famous definition of the relationship between the Dominions and Great Britain, which summarized the findings of the report:

“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 . "

“They [the Dominions and Great Britain] are autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal, in no way subordinate to domestic or foreign policy, yet united by a common allegiance to the Crown and voluntarily united as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations . "

This formulation was synonymous with the sovereignty of the Dominions of Great Britain, which was formally confirmed by the British Parliament in 1931 in the Statute of Westminster . The Balfour Report marked the final departure from the idea of ​​federation, which had been discussed in the early 1920s as a possible state structure for the British Empire. The report thus exemplifies the Dominions' striving for complete sovereignty from Great Britain and marks the beginning of the slow dissolution of the British Empire, whose successor, the Commonwealth of Nations , is today a loose organization of completely independent states.

literature

  • Peter Marshall: The Balfour Formula and the Evolution of the Commonwealth. In: The Round Table , Volume 90, Issue 261, 2001, pp. 541-553. on-line

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