Union Jack and the flags of the Afrikaner republics.l?
In 1926, largely at Hertzog's instigation, an imperial conference at-
tended by the prime ministers of Great Britain and the self-governing
British dominions devised a subtle formula that described the dominions as
"autonomous communities within the British Empire ...
though united
by a common allegiance to the Crown."18 Five years later, the British
Parliament passed the Statute ofWestminster, which gavelegal effectto that
declaration. The South African government, meanwhile, like the govern-
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