 When Eden succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister in 1955 he promoted Home to the cabinet as Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations . At the time of this appointment Home had not been to any of the countries within his ministerial remit , and he quickly arranged to visit Australia , New Zealand , Singapore , India , Pakistan and Ceylon . He had to deal with the sensitive subject of immigration from and between Commonwealth countries , where a delicate balance had to be struck between resistance in some quarters in Britain and Australia to non @-@ white immigration on the one hand , and on the other the danger of sanctions in India and Pakistan against British commercial interests if discriminatory policies were pursued . In most respects , however , when Home took up the appointment it seemed to be a relatively uneventful period in the history of the Commonwealth . The upheaval of Indian independence in 1947 was well in the past , and the wave of decolonising of the 1960s was yet to come . However , it fell to Home to maintain Commonwealth unity during the Suez Crisis in 1956 , described by Dutton as " the most divisive in its history to date " . Australia , New Zealand and South Africa backed the Anglo @-@ French invasion of Egypt to regain control of the Suez Canal . Canada , Ceylon , India and Pakistan opposed it . 
