Editing Letter of credence (section)

=== Commonwealth ===

[[High commissioner (Commonwealth)|High commissioners]] from [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] nations do not present letters of credence. When two [[Commonwealth realms]] share the same [[British monarch|monarch]] as head of state, the [[prime minister]] of the sending state writes an informal letter of introduction to the prime minister of the receiving state.<ref>Alison Quentin-Baxter and Janet McLean, ''This Realm of New Zealand: The Sovereign, the Governor-General, the Crown'', 2017</ref> When a Commonwealth nation is a republic or has its own separate monarch, high commissioners are dispatched and received with letters of commission, which are written by one head of state and presented to another head of state.<ref name="dictionary3_introduction">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Berridge |first1=G. R. |last2=Lloyd |first2=Lorna |title=Letter of introduction|encyclopedia=The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Diplomacy |date=2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=9780230302990 |edition=3rd |page=229}}</ref><ref name="dictionary3_commission">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Berridge |first1=G. R. |last2=Lloyd |first2=Lorna |title=Letters of commission|encyclopedia=The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Diplomacy |date=2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=9780230302990 |edition=3rd |page=230}}</ref> Both forms of letters were standardized in 1950–1951 after India became a republic, replacing a chaotic system where some high commissioners carried letters from the prime minister, some carried letters from the minister of external relations, and others carried no letters at all.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lloyd |first1=Lorna |title=Diplomacy with a Difference: the Commonwealth Office of High Commissioner, 1880-2006 |date=2007 |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff |isbn=9789047420590 |pages=138–140}}</ref>