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Except where a letter of introduction is appropriate, a new head of mission sent by one Commonwealth state to another carries letters of commission from the sending state\'s head of state to the receiving state\'s head of state. The term came into use as from 1950 to accommodate the presence, for the first time, of a republic – India – as a member of the Commonwealth. The exact phraseology which was adopted (at India\'s suggestion) reflected the fact that the head of mission sent by one Commonwealth state to another was (and is) called a high commissioner; and the thought that the more usual term for such documents, letters of credence, was inappropriate for the special relationship which was then deemed to exist between Commonwealth members, even when one of those members had broken with tradition by becoming a republic. Now, republics are in a large majority in the Commonwealth; and it may be doubted whether the relationship between Commonwealth states is, in political terms, particularly special. Nonetheless, the terminology adopted in 1950 is maintained (although in informal contexts the document may be referred to as ‘credentials’). The use of the plural, ‘letters’, in this context is in imitation of its general use in the term, ‘letters of credence’. But sometimes the singular form, ‘letter of commission’, is encountered. |
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