Talk:Balfour Declaration of 1926

Discussion of Name of Artricle

Looking around it would appear that this page is incorrectly named.

Various sources talk about the "Balfour Definition" of 1926 or the "Balfour Report" , use of the word "Declaration" appears to be a minority position (probably to avoid confusion with the 1917 one).

• Britannica

on the other hand some sources use "Declaration" . I would suggest we use "Definition" since (a) it is at least as if not more common that "Declaration" and (b) it avoids the ambiguity.

SimonLyall 10:23, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Hmm. I've become used to it being refered to as the Balfour Declaration; amongst those who use that term seems to be the Australian government (see [1]), and you'd expect them to know, as it were...

James F. (talk) 13:29, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I've hit various books and it seems to be a mix, perhaps a brief bit on this page listing the alternative term(s) and a forward to this page for them? SimonLyall 11:18, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Sounds like worth considering changing this title or at least putting another in. the Balfour Dec re Israel is SO much more well known and the confusion seems likely. I only came here cos I thought it was wrong!

Also, I don't understand a bit of the english/meaning- "The document was not accepted the growing..." was this meant to be "did not accept" or "was not accepted because..." or what?IceDragon64 23:14, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

What about the work of the Irish delegation led by Desmond Fitzgerald which first brought the delegates together? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.42.5.83 (talk) 20:27, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: not moved -- JHunterJ (talk) 16:53, 21 April 2012 (UTC)

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Balfour Declaration of 1926 → Balfour Report of 1926 – A review of google books suggests Balfour Report of 1926 is more common than Balfour Declaration of 1926 - presumably this is because (1) scholars choose to distinguish it from the materially more well know 1917 declaration, and (2) it was a report, not a "declaration". Relisted, waiting with baited breath for Mr Serjeant Buzfuz's analysis. Favonian (talk) 19:40, 13 April 2012 (UTC). Oncenawhile (talk) 14:32, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

* I would oppose this suggestion; Balfour Declaration is well-known in Commonwealth history as the 1926 Declaration. I can provide a more detailed analysis, but not until this weekend; would ask that no action be taken on this proposal for a few more days. Mr Serjeant Buzfuz (talk) 12:52, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

OK, whenever you are ready. Note that google books suggests otherwise:

• "Balfour Report 1926" 7,100 results
• "Balfour Declaration 1926" 2,300 results

Oncenawhile (talk) 19:51, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

• I have four comments in support of not changing the article name.

1. I think it's important to remember that there are different communities of interest and that Wikipedia serves all of those communities. Those different communities may each have their own vocabulary and terms, which can overlap. A particular community cannot claim sole usage of a particular term. Here, there are two different communities: those that are interested in the history of Palestine/Israel, and those that are interested in the constitutional development and history of the modern Commonwealth and the individual nations that make it up. Both of them use the term "Balfour Declaration" for different purposes, and it would be inappropriate, in my opinion, for one community to assert that only its usage of the term should be recognised by Wikipedia. As well, some of the earlier posts on this page referred to the 1917 Declaration as being the "better known". That assumes too much, in my opinion, as it leads to the next question: "Better known by whom?" To the Israel/Palestine community, the 1917 Declaration will likely be better known, but to the Commonwealth community, the 1926 Declaration is likely the better known.

2. The term "Declaration" is the correct term to describe the 1926 statement, because it was just that: it declared that the Dominions were of equal status and autonomy with the United Kingdom. It was not a recommendation or proposal. Balfour's Declaration of the constitutional status of the Dominions recognised the constitutional developments that had already occurred, notably during World War I, and is at the heart of the Report of the 1926 Imperial Conference. It is the Declaration that is the most-quoted part of the overall Report, because it was the most significant. The rest of the Report was an analysis of the political and legal implications of the Declaration. Significantly, the Statute of Westminster 1931, which implemented some aspects of the 1926 Imperial Conference, refers in its preamble to the "declarations and resolutions" in the reports of the conferences. Also, since the Declaration was penned by Balfour himself, it is appropriate that the Declaration be linked to his name.

3. Simply reviewing google books and counting occurrences of the different terms is not an appropriate way to resolve this issue, in my opinion. The review of google books is one factor, but I would suggest that another, more compelling factor is to look at who actually uses the term "Balfour Declaration" to refer to the 1926 statement on the equality and autonomy of the Dominions:

The Queen is the Head of the Commonwealth. On the Queen's own official web-page, the term "Balfour Declaration" is used to refer to the development of the modern Commonwealth;

The British Government uses the term "Balfour Declaration" on the web-page of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and also on the National Archives' web-page summarising the Cabinet Papers, in both cases in reference to the 1926 Declaration and the development of the Commonwealth;

The Canadian Government uses the term "Balfour Declaration" on the web-page of the Canadian Privy Council Office;

The Supreme Court of Canada uses the term "Balfour Declaration" in a major case tracing the constitutional history of Canada and Newfoundland (formerly an independent Dominion, recognized by the 1926 Declaration);

The Museum of Australian Democracy, an agency of the Australian Government uses the term "Balfour Declaration" in its web-page tracing the development of Australia's constitutional history;

The Governor General of New Zealand uses the term "Balfour Declaration" on his web-page tracing New Zealand's constitutional development;

The Commonwealth Secretariat uses the term "Balfour Declaration on its web-page discussing the histroy of the Commonwealth.

These are the official web-pages of the governments which are the most affected by the 1926 Declaration. It is a part of their constitutional history. The fact that all of them use the term "Balfour Declaration" is a very strong factor in favour of the use of the term by Wikipedia.

4. Finally, Wikipedia has its own conventions to avoid confusion in the names of its articles. There are "Disambiguation" pages, and also the use of the year in the name of the article. For instance, type "Treaty of Paris" into the search box, and you'll get a link to a disambiguation page, followed by a long list of articles entitled "Treaty of Paris", distinguished by the year. That approach is an entirely appropriate way to deal with the two Balfour Declarations; a disambiguation page, with the two declarations distinguished by year. And, the Treaty of Paris example also illustrates my earlier discussion of communities of interest. For Canadians, "Treaty of Paris" normally refers to the 1763 Treaty, where France ceded Quebec to Britain. For Americans, "Treaty of Paris" normally refers to the 1783 Treaty, where Britain recognised American independence. And for Europeans, "Treaty of Paris" often means the 1951 Treaty, which is considered one of the initial steps towards the establishment of the European Community. All of them are correct, from their particular viewpoint. Similarly, "Balfour Declaration" refers to two different Declarations, and Wikipedia should reflect that usage. Mr Serjeant Buzfuz (talk) 03:16, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

• Oppose [2] clearly calls this the Balfour Declaration 1926 in the footer of every page. Two separate nations consider their respective founding documents to have similar names. There is no need to privilege one over the other since we have fabulous disambiguation tools available to us. Stuartyeates (talk) 04:04, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Balfour Declaration which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 20:44, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

"aspect of their domestic or internal/external affairs?"

The article currently quotes the Declaration as saying "autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs". That wording has 312 hits here. However, "aspect of their domestic or internal affairs" gets 45 hits here - including a UK Parliament research paper, Fransman's British Nationality Law and The New Cambridge Modern History, all of which I suggest would normally be considered as reliable sources. The definitive source appears to be "Report of the Inter-Imperial Relations Committee of the Imperial Conference of 1926 (Cmd 2768) at page 14, cited in Halsbury's Statutes of England and Wales, 4th ed, 1985, vol 7 p4." Does anyone have access to either of these sources? Would it be worth the article recording these variants, and stating which one is correct and which one is not? Alekksandr (talk) 21:55, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

UK or GB

In the declaration, the country is called GB, and there is no single mention of the UK. Why than the article uses the name "United Kingdom"? 2A0D:6FC7:212:3375:678:5634:1232:5476 (talk) 21:19, 28 November 2021 (UTC)