The Military Structure of the Old Commonwealth

Abstract

{ frriHESE are which, though light as air, are as strongI as links of iron. Edmund Burke said that bonds ■*■ of 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 political and legal bonds, which were also important in holding together British Empire of his day (and against which he was inveighing), have been snapped one by one. Yet record of two World Wars shows that, despite loss of some of its parts, despite severe political and legal fragmentation, and despite a parallel and consequent disruption of Empire as a military entity, old Commonwealth of Nations during course of past sixty years actually became an increasingly effective military force. This effectiveness was not merely result of 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 member nations.