The Military Structure of the Old Commonwealth
| Author | Richard A. Preston |
| Published date | 01 June 1962 |
| Date | 01 June 1962 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070206201700202 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Military
Structure
of
the
Old
Commonwealth
Richard
A.
Preston*
HESE
are
ties
which,
though
light
as
air,
are
as
strong-
as
links of
iron."
Edmund Burke
said
that
the
bonds
"Tof
Empire
were
"the
close
affection
which
grows
from
common
names,
from
kindred
blood,
from
similar
privileges,
and-
equal
protection".
1
Burke's
"ties...
light
as
air"
have
endured
for
a
century
and
a
half;
but
the
political
and
legal bonds,
which
were-
also
important
in
holding
together
the
British
Empire
of
his
day
(and
against
which
he
was
inveighing),
have
been
snapped
one.
by
one.
Yet
the
record
of
two
World
Wars
shows
that,
despite-
the
loss
of
some
of
its
parts,
despite
severe political
and
legal
fragmentation,
and despite
a
parallel
and consequent
disruption
of
the
Empire as
a
military
entity,
the
old
Commonwealth
of
Nations.
during the
course
of
the past
sixty
years actually
became
an
increasingly
effective
military
force.
This
effectiveness was
not
merely
the
result
of
the
continued
existence of
Burke's
bonds
of'
sentiment
and
of
blood.
It
derived
also
from
specific
and
tangible
military
links
which
were
deliberately forged
by
the
member-
nations.
The
Commonwealth
is,
even
today,
a peculiar
kind
of
military-
alliance
of
sovereign
states.
Like
an
alliance,
its
members
deter--
mine
unilaterally
the
extent
of
their
contribution
to
a
common
war
against an
enemy.
But
it
is
unlike
a
more
normal
alliance-
in
two
marked,
though
distinctly
different,
respects.
It
has
no
written
instrument,
agreement,
or
treaty,
to
bind
it
together
to,
*
Department
of
History,
Royal
Military
College of
Canada.
The
author-
acknowledges
the
assistance
of
the
Duke
University
Commonwealth
Centre
and
the
Nuffield
Foundation
in
making
possible
the
research
on
which
this
article
is
based.
1
R.
T.
S.
Hoffman
and
Paul
Levack,
(eds.),
Burkes
Politics:
Selected"
writings and
speeches
of
Edmund
Burke
on
Reform,
Revolution
and
War
(New
York,
1949),
pp.
92-3.
The
context
shows
that
by
"equal
protection"
Burke
meant
"civil
rights"
and
not
"military
security"'
which
would
completely
change
the
sense
of
his
passage.
MILITARY
STRUCTURE OF
THE
OLD
COMMONWEALTH
99
pursue
a
common
course of
action, political,
military,
or
economic;
and
yet
its
association is
so
much
the
more
permanent
than
that
of
almost
any
other
treaty
alliance
of
sovereign
states
that,
in
time
of
peace,
its
members,
being reasonably
confident
or
accept-
ing
the
possibility,
that
they
will
be
allies
if
war
should
come,
prepare
the
way
for
concerted
military
action.
2
In an
age
when
war
demands
a
national effort
that
has
the
support
of
an
over-
whelming
public opinion,
it
has
been
suggested
that
this
absence
of
definite
military
commitments
that
might
be
politically
embar-
rassing
is
not
a
disadvantage.
3 It
is
actually
an
asset.
Certainly,
the
"invisible
bonds"
of
the
Commonwealth,
including
both
the
military arrangements
and
the
ties
of
sentiment,
have
thus
far
proved
stronger
than
any relationship
that
has
ever
been
forged
by
treaty
between
other
independent
political
entities.
Without raising
the
difficult
question
whether
such
military
arrangements
and
procedures
as
marked
the
old
Commonwealth
increased
the
liability
of
a
dominion
to
be
committed
to a
British
or
other
war,
the
aim
of
this
paper
is,
simply, to
outline
the
history
of
the military
skeleton
that
stiffened
the
old
Common-
wealth.
How
far
this
skeleton
or
structure
remains
within
the
"new"
Commonwealth
is
a
matter
of
speculation
rather
than
of
history.
It
is
important
to
note
that
the
military
arrangements
which
are important
in
this
concern
are
of
recent
origin.
They
include
features
of
military
organisation
and
training
that
did
not
exist
in
the
British
Army
until
the twentieth
century.
So
the
military
structure
of
the
old
Commonwealth
was
not
the
result
of
labels
and
organization
transferred
to
the
embryo
dominions
in
earlier
colonial
times.
Furthermore,
before
1900
the
military
formations
of
the
dominions
were
almost
exclusively
militia
units.
The
permanent
forces
in
the
dominions,
which
have
been
shaped
to
fit
the
military
system
of
the
Commonwealth,
are
largely
the
products
of
the twentieth
century;
and
though
they
have
inheri-
ted many
valuable
old
military
traditions,
these
alone would
not
2
W.
I.
Jennings,
The
British
Commonwealth
of
Nations
(London,
1948),
p.
91;
Arthur
Willert,
The
Empire
in
the
World
(London,
1937),
p.
309.
3
Maurice
P.
A.
Hankey,
Diplomacy
by
Conference: Studies
in
Public
Affairs
1920-1946
(London,
1946),
p.
142.
Being
convinced
that
Britain
was unlikely
to
involve
herself
in
a
war
in which
public
opinion
in
the
dominions
was
not
strongly
sympathetic
to
the
British
cause,
Hankey
said
in
a
pre-World
War
II
broadcast,
"If
I
were
the
Chief
of
the
General
Staff
of a
country
likely
to
become
involved
in
war
with
the
United
Kingdom,
I
would
warn
my
Government: 'Beware
of
underrating
the
Dominions'
".
(p.
143).
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