Editing Commonwealth realm (section)

===Dominions gain sovereignty===
[[File:1937 Imperial Conference.jpg|thumb|King [[George VI]] (third from right) with his prime ministers (left to right), [[Michael Joseph Savage|Michael Savage]], [[Joseph Lyons]], [[Stanley Baldwin]], [[William Lyon Mackenzie King|William L.M. King]], and [[J. B. M. Hertzog|James B.M. Hertzog]], during the [[1937 Imperial Conference|Imperial Conference]], April 1937]]

At the 1932 [[British Empire Economic Conference]], delegates from the United Kingdom, led by [[Stanley Baldwin]] (then [[Lord President of the Council]]),<ref name=Kaufman976>{{citation| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HbBbn3x7PZsC| last1=Kaufman| first1=Will| last2=Macpherson| first2=Heidi Slettedahl| title=Britain and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History| page=976| publisher=ABC-CLIO| year=2005| isbn=9781851094318| access-date=5 November 2015}}</ref> hoped to establish a system of [[free trade]] within the British Commonwealth, to promote unity within the British Empire and to assure Britain's position as a world power. The idea was controversial, as it pitted proponents of imperial trade with those who sought a general policy of trade liberalisation with all nations. The dominions, particularly Canada, were also adamantly against dispensing with their import tariffs,<ref name=NA>{{citation| url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/themes/policy-protectionism-imperial-preference.htm| publisher=National Archives| title=The Cabinet Papers 1915–1986 > Policy, protectionism and imperial preference| access-date=4 November 2015| ref={{harvid|National Archives|2015}} }}</ref> which "dispelled any romantic notions of a 'United Empire'."<ref name=Kaufman976/> The meeting did produce a five-year [[trade agreement]] based upon a policy, first conceived in the 1900s,<ref>{{harvnb| National Archives| 2015| loc=[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/help/glossary-i.htm#imperial_preference Glossary]}}</ref> of [[Imperial Preference]]: the countries retained their import tariffs, but lowered these for other Commonwealth countries.<ref name=NA/><ref>{{citation| url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/imperial-preference| title=Imperial Preference| encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica| access-date=4 November 2015}}</ref>

During his tenure as Governor General of Canada, [[Lord Tweedsmuir]] urged the organisation of [[1939 royal tour of Canada|a royal tour]] of the country by King George VI, so that he might not only appear in person before his people, but also personally perform constitutional duties and pay a [[state visit]] to the United States as [[king of Canada]].<ref name=LAC>{{cite web| url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/king/023011-1070.06-e.html| last=Library and Archives Canada| authorlink=Library and Archives Canada| title=The Royal Tour of 1939| publisher=Queen's Printer for Canada| access-date=6 May 2009| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091030064730/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/king/023011-1070.06-e.html| archive-date=30 October 2009}}</ref> While the idea was embraced in Canada as a way to "translate the Statute of Westminster into the actualities of a tour", throughout the planning of the trip that took place in 1939, the British authorities resisted at numerous points the idea that the King be attended by his Canadian ministers instead of his British ones.<ref name=Parl>{{cite journal| last=Galbraith| first=William| title=Fiftieth Anniversary of the 1939 Royal Visit| journal=Canadian Parliamentary Review| volume=12| issue=3| year=1989| url=http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Sites/LOP/Infoparl/english/issue.asp?param=130&art=820| access-date=6 May 2009| archive-url=https://archive.today/20121205052132/http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Sites/LOP/Infoparl/english/issue.asp?param=130&art=820| archive-date=5 December 2012| url-status=dead}}</ref> The Canadian prime minister (still Mackenzie King) was ultimately the minister in attendance, and the King did in public throughout the trip ultimately act solely in his capacity as the Canadian monarch. The status of the Crown was bolstered by Canada's reception of George VI.<ref name=LAC/>
[[File:CommonwealthPrimeMinisters1944.jpg|thumb|left|The prime ministers of five Commonwealth countries at the 1944 [[Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting|Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference]]; from left to right: [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] (Canada), [[Jan Smuts]] (South Africa), [[Winston Churchill]] (United Kingdom), [[Peter Fraser]] (New Zealand) and [[John Curtin]] (Australia)]]

When the [[Second World War]] began, there was some uncertainty in the dominions about the ramifications of Britain's declaration of war against [[Nazi Germany]]. Australia and New Zealand had not yet adopted the Statute of Westminster; the Australian prime minister, [[Robert Menzies]], considered the government bound by the British declaration of war,<ref>{{cite book| last=Hasluck| first=Paul| title=The Government and the People, 1939–1941| url=https://archive.org/details/governmentpeople0000hasl| url-access=registration| publisher=Australian War Memorial| year=1952| location=Canberra| pages=[https://archive.org/details/governmentpeople0000hasl/page/149 149–151]| isbn=9780642993670}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.ww2australia.gov.au/wardeclared/| title=Menzies' announcement of the declaration of war| publisher=Department of Veterans Affairs| access-date=26 June 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080403003441/http://www.ww2australia.gov.au/wardeclared/| archive-date=3 April 2008| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Boyce27>{{Harvnb| Boyce| 2008| p=27}}</ref> while New Zealand coordinated a declaration of war to be made simultaneously with Britain's.<ref>{{Cite book| last=Monckton-Arundell| first=George| authorlink=George Monckton-Arundell, 8th Viscount Galway| year=1949| publication-date=4 September 1939| contribution=Documents Relating to New Zealand's Participation in the Second World War 1939–45 > 9&nbsp;– The Governor-General of New Zealand to the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs| contribution-url=https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2-1Doc-c1-9.html| editor-last=Historical Publications Branch| title=The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945| volume=1| location=Wellington| publisher=Victoria University of Wellington| url=https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2-1Doc-c1-9.html| access-date=6 May 2009}}</ref> As late as 1937, some scholars were still of the mind that, when it came to declarations of war, if the King signed, he did so as king of the empire as a whole; at that time, [[William Paul McClure Kennedy]] wrote: "in the final test of sovereignty—that of war—Canada is not a sovereign state... and it remains as true in 1937 as it was in 1914 that when the Crown is at war, Canada is legally at war,"<ref name="Kennedy1938">{{cite book|author=William Paul McClure Kennedy|authorlink=William Paul McClure Kennedy|title=The Constitution of Canada, 1534–1937: An Introduction to Its Development, Law and Custom|url=https://archive.org/details/constitutionofca0000kenn|url-access=registration|year=1938|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/constitutionofca0000kenn/page/540 540–541]}}</ref> and, one year later, [[Arthur Berriedale Keith]] argued that "issues of war or neutrality still are decided on the final authority of the British Cabinet."<ref>{{Cite book| last=Keith| first=A. Berriedale| title=The Dominions as Sovereign States| url=https://archive.org/details/dominionsassover0000keit| url-access=limited| publisher=Macmillan| year=1938| location=London| page=[https://archive.org/details/dominionsassover0000keit/page/203 203]}}</ref> In 1939, Canada and South Africa made separate proclamations of war against Germany a few days after the UK's. Their example was followed more consistently by the other realms as further war was declared against Italy, Romania, Hungary, Finland and Japan.<ref name=Heard/> Ireland remained neutral,<ref name=Boyce27/> "shattering the illusion of imperial unity."<ref name=Murphy31>{{harvnb| Murphy| 2013| p=31}}</ref> At the war's end, it was said by F.R. Scott that "it is firmly established as a basic constitutional principle that, so far as relates to Canada, the King is regulated by Canadian law and must act only on the advice and responsibility of Canadian ministers."<ref>{{Harvnb| Scott| 1944| p=152}}</ref>
[[File:King George VI watching an Australian soldier assemble a machine gun.JPG|thumb|King [[George VI]] (standing centre) observes an Australian soldier assembling a machine gun while blindfolded, July 1940.]]

The war had strained the alliance among the Commonwealth countries, which had been noted by the King. The Prime Minister of Australia, [[John Curtin]], had stated in December 1941 "that Australia looks to America, free of any pangs about our traditional links of kinship with Britain." The Parliament of South Africa voted on 14 January 1942 on a motion proposing the country become a republic and leave the Commonwealth. British Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]] was told "His Majesty is genuinely alarmed at the feeling, which appears to be growing in Australia and may well be aggravated by further reverses in the Far East. He very much hopes, therefore, that it may be possible to adopt as soon as possible some procedure which will succeed in arresting these dangerous developments without impairing the efficiency of the existing machinery."<ref name=Murphy31/>