{ frriHESE are ties which, though light as air, are as strongI as links of iron." Edmund Burke said that the 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 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.