New Zealand joined the League of Nations on 10 January 1920. Under International Law only a sovereign state can sign an international treaty – although New Zealand and the other Dominions signed as part of a "British Empire Delegation", and their names were indented in a list following that of Britain. The significance of the indentation was perhaps deliberately left unclear. The Treaty of Versailles offered membership to any "fully self-governing State, Dominion, or Colony" (Art. 1). At the 1921 Imperial Conference British Prime Minister Lloyd George said: 1926 Imperial Conference The Balfour Declaration (not to be confused with the Balfour Declaration of 1917 on Palestine) stated that "They [the Dominions] are 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, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations." This was given legal effect by the Statute of Westminster 1931, which took effect when a given Dominion adopted it. The New Zealand Government saw little urgency in the Act and delayed ratification, but for practical purposes 1926 had removed doubts about functional independence. At the opening of the 1930 Imperial Conference which drafted the Statute of Westminster, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, George Forbes stated: In 1914 Britain had declared war on the Central Powers for the whole British Empire but in 1939 the Dominions made their own decisions. On 3 September 1939 New Zealand declared war on Germany. Declaration of war is normally regarded as an indication of sovereignty. Statute of Westminster and Realm (1930s–1970s) At the outset of the Second World War, then Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage, who had been critical of the British policy of appeasement, famously declared: Savage's successor, Peter Fraser, did not withdraw New Zealand troops from the Middle East in 1942 (unlike Australia), based on an assessment of New Zealand interests. In the 1944 Speech from the Throne the Governor-General announced the Fraser Government's intention to adopt the Statute of Westminster. However, there was a strong outcry by the opposition that this would weaken the British Empire in a time of need. In 1946, Fraser instructed Government departments not to use the term "Dominion" any longer. Ironically, the failure of a private members bill to abolish the upper house by future Prime Minister Sidney