ABSTRACT
The occasion for submitting treaties to Parliament would be the opportunity for giving information, and in the way the country would obtain some definite notion of our international obligations. The only way to get any real security is to base the treaty on a formal parliamentary approval. The two important stages are the intention and the decision. The first can be contained in the Foreign Secretary’s statement of policy, the second by the submission of the treaty itself. In the process of constitutional development this prerogative of the Sovereign has been delegated to the Cabinet, and it is only one step farther that it should pass into the control of Parliament. Parliamentary questions would remain as a very useful method of interrogating the Executive, and would become an opportunity for eliciting information which would be more intelligently utilized by members who were better informed.
