Himalayan Times (1953)

Nine

June 1, 1953 i'jiuialuua-u SLiwe*

“ELIZABETH II, QUEEN AND HEAD OF THE COMMONWEALTH”

DR. H. C. MOOKERJEE

Governor of

Early in March this year, the U. K.
Parliament passed the Royal Titles Act,
1953, in introducing which Sir David
Maxwell Fyfe, Homs .Secretary, observed
that it was agreed that a9 the existing
title of the Queen did not reflect the
existing constitutional position, under
which other members of the Common-
wealth are equal p irtners with the LI. K.
in our great family of nations, it was
necessary that certain changes should be
made. The Act therefore provides that
the following should be the t'itle of Her
Majesty

“Elizabethan, by. the grace of God,
of the U. K, of Great Britain and Nor-
thern Tr land and of her other Realms
and Territories, Queen. Head of the
Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.”

Speaking .for the Opposition Mr.
P. C. Cordon Walker,, a former Secretary
of State for Commonwealth Relations,
observed that the Royal* Tit Ds‘Act, 1953,
is an important landmark' in the consti-
tutional development of IheCommonwe'alth.

I 'alike her illustrious {predecessor, Elizabeth
I, who was Sovereign of one nation only,} Her
Majesty Queen Elizalelh II is not oniy Queen
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 1 ■ nt of
the independent States of Canada, Australia
• New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon,^
and of nearly 50 other lands over which the
authority of the Imperial- Parliament at West-
minister continues to be supreme.

From one point of view, behind* this recently
passed Act lies the idea that the Queen is
equally the Queen of each of her seven Realms
that she acts only on the advice of her Ministers
in each of the Realms and that, in a certain
sense, there a*e seven Queens and not one Queen
or, at any rate seven Crowns and not one Crown.

, M. A., Ph. D., D Litt,

West Bengal. « ,

This divisibility of the Crown does nol,^-
Mr. Cordon Walker said, mean that it amounts
to a weakening of the ConPmonwealth. Such a
view betrays ran ignorance of it s second asp*ect.

In calling the Queen, the Head of the' Common-
wealth, there is a deliberate emphasis,- Which
has no| been there before, upon the. Crown as
the unifying factor in the . Commonwealth. She
is recognised as the one and only symbol of
the unity and free association o:f the members"
uf. the Commonwealth because every single one
•including India recognises the Qi.ieen as Head
of.the Commonwealth. Never befo/e has there
been, ibis express apd explicit, rec ognition qf the.
Crown as such a unifying factor. \

Let. each and every one ’ of. us take ,pride
and feel confidence' in .the fact thaf thisT'nian of •
Nations fori,ns. the largest' pojit-ical grojip in the
world embracing as it does all 'the earth’s live
Continents' and nearly a quarter of. its pbpula-
tion. There-Ms no‘binding o'r coercive force;
only the 'free will 01 its members to. be associa-
ted with one another and their acknowledgment
of that solitary and seemingly powerless, hut
beloved, .human figure, as its Head.

There is .not much, doubt that, historians
of the -future 'will' emphasise the fact that die
gradual creation in the i-'qth and 20th centuries
of a Commonwealth of Nations including almost
every component of Great Britain’s original Empire
is not only a unique achievement in international
and inter-racial partnership but one of the most
valuable contributions to civilisation in the .history
of the world. Nor can it be denied that it is
the aim of all thinking and far-sighted persons
in the Commonwealth to make this ideal a rea-
lity with the result that millions of British Asian
and African people are devoting their lives to
its fulfilment.

The first danger which our Comtnonvvealtli
has to face is undoubtedly Communism which
has become a dynamic faith with millions of
people who regard no sacrifics as too high a

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