FOUR BRITISH EMPIRES

fixations regarding period of residence as might be applied to all
alike; yet without any common Government or common legisla-
ture, or any hindrance to full independence in internal or external
affairs? The anomalies, obvious as they are, would hardly be
greater than those inherent in the British Commonwealth connec-
tion itself, of which, indeed, the above is virtually a description.
Eire, regarded as a member of the British Commonwealth, has
made a serious inroad upon the principle of the common status.
She denies the common status of her ow7n nationals and those of
the United Kingdom or any other part of the Commonwealth,
whereas in the United Kingdom and elsewhere the common status
of natural-born Irish has hitherto been upheld in theory, however
differently they might be treated in practice. Under the British
Nationality Bill, the United Kingdom will compromise with the
Irish view, by providing that citizens of Eire wiio were hitherto
British subjects can retain their British subjecthood by claiming it
on certain grounds. This is obviously of expiring effect, so that
eventually the two citizenships will be entirely distinct, with no
common status. Yet there is now no solid reason of principle on
either side why a common status—so entitled—should not be re-
affirmed by agreement between the two countries.

CROWN AND PEOPLE

There is, of course, a reason, but it is not a solid one. As the
1930 Imperial Conference conclusions indicate, the common status
is associated with the common Crown, and this is what Eire repu-
diates above all else in the Commonwealth scheme of things. But
although British subjecthood derives historically from the concept
of common allegiance to the British Crown, the continued associa-
tion of subjecthood and monarchy is a matter of form and of ter-
minology rather than substance. When we think of ourselves as
British subjects we are thinking primarily of our superiority to
others, not of our subjection to anybody. We might indeed just
as well call ourselves, like the babu of legend, 'British objects'.
'British citizens5 is as good a term as any: the traditional boast is
'avis Britannicus sum'.

The concept of allegiance is not so easily disposed of. It is im-
plicit in the interchange of secret information, or in the admission

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