Now part of this is also embodied in the well known Statute of Westminster. Nothing of it has been left so far as this declaration is concerned. In the first instance, the Nations which are going to be members of this Commonwealth are to be independent nations. That is the wording of the Declaration here. Secondly they are not united by a common allegiance to the Crown. This is the most important element in the new Commonwealth. The British Commonwealth, as is well-known, depended for its existence on what is called the “Unity of the Crown”. I remember to have read in one of the books of Berriedale Keith, one of the great constitutional lawyers, that the unity of the Crown and the allegiance to the King-I am speaking from memory-are the basis on which the British Commonwealth of Nations is founded and when that goes, the British Commonwealth of nations will be disintegrated. The fact remains that there is no allegiance to the Crown in the new Commonwealth and there is no unity of the Crown as contemplated by the old constitutional laws of the British Empire. Take for instance the word ‘British Empire’ in the old Balfour Declaration. In composition at that time the free countries-the self-governing Dominions-were mostly British by birth. Today we-the citizens of India-are in a majority in the new Commonwealth. The predominant composition is not British. In the British Empire and the British Commonwealth of Nations, the unity was preserved by the army, predominantly British, which functioned in the name of His majesty. After the 15th August 1947, the Indian army was the army of an independent dominion but after the 15th August next it will no longer be His Majesty’s forces. There is no British army left in India which would control the country. Therefore, to the extent it is a complete departure from the old British Commonwealth of Nations.
