Commonwealth criteria

[rundmg]

I was under the impression until recently that the commonwealth was made entirely from former sovereign states. Namibia joined as late as 1990 and to my knowledge wasn't ever British. What are the criteria for joining the Commonwealth? Furthermore why are there more countries taking part than there are member states (home nations excluded)?

[geofbob]

The Commonwealth does now contain nations that were never part of the British Empire. Presumably, any application for membership is decided ultimately by the existing members. I doubt if there are any specific criteria for membership, but widespread knowledge of English in the country concerned is probably relevant. I think the last part of your question refers to the Commonwealth Games, and that the discrepancy you mention is due to the fact that the Games include the British Dependent Territories - such as Montserrat, Pitcairn and Gibraltar - as well as the 54 full members of the Commonwealth.

[mikewith]

Rather thasn copy'n'paste the relevant material, here's a link to a page that answers the questions of what the Commonwealth is, criteria for membership and why *Mozambique* (a former Portuguesecolony) was admitted in 1995 "because of its close relationship with the Commonwealth since its independence in 1975, and the association's recognition that during that period, despite a heavy cost to its own economy, Mozambique had supported the Commonwealth's stand against white minority rule in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa": http://www.thecommonwealth.org/srch_help/commonwea
lth.html

As for the Games - remember that all territories send their own terams including England, Scotland, Wales, Norn Iron, Isle Of Man etc etc -- the numbers soon add up.