IMPERIAL DEFENCE AND THE DOMINIONS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1686, 28 February 1913, Page 4

IMPERIAL DEFENCE AND THE DOMINIONS.

Spins years ago, although wc cannot give the reference, Mr. Asquith ;declared that "the conduct of foreign policy cannot be shared by the British, Government with the Dominions," and he reiterated this view, very strongly, in other words, at the! Imperial Conference of 1911. It' is * impossible that wjthin the measurable future any British Prime ofj whatever party, can take any other view; and that is a fact which must be remembered, and which we may be quite sure Mr. Jajies Allen will remember, in discussing the idea that some new step must be taken- towards giving to the Dominions what Mr. Harcoort calls/ V a moro contiguous representation"! on tlie Committee of Imperial Defence; It has long been the practice of the' British Government to allow Dominion Ministers to attend the Committee's' discussions upon military or naval questions affecting the Dominions concerned. In 190?, Sir Frederick Borden told the Imperial .Conference that, some years, before, Mr. Balttour—whose idea the Com'njittee was—had on two or three occasions' clearly Btated the objects of the. Committee, and . that he (Sir Frederick BoRDEN)/had attended p meeting'of the Committee so far back as December, 1903, in order to discuss Canada's relation to. naval defence. At that Conference in 1907 it was formally resolved: "That'the colonies be authorised to refer to the Committee of Imperial- Defence, through the Secretary of State, for advice on any local questions in regard to' which expert opinion is deemed' desirable; That, whenever so desired, a representative of the colony which may' .wish- for advice should be summoned to attend as a member of the Committee during the discussion of the questions raised." •The resolutions carried in May, 1911, at a meeting of 'the Committee' attended by.delegates to the Imperial Conference in that year were two in number.' Wc printed them ; yesterday, and it will be remembered that the first merely extended the .1907 resolution by affirming that instead of .making their own arrangements for representation on the Committee on special'' occasions,' the Dominions should be actually asked to send representatives on such occasions.. The second resolution affirmed the principle of Defence Committees in each Dominion. Even this second resolution comes as no surprise, for Mr, Asquith, as long ago as July 25 last, stated that the matter had been discussed in 1911, and specifically referred to "the possibility of their setting up, each of them, in their own Dominions, some corresponding body tp which strategic questions, naval and military in'their relation, might bo referred."

We only recall those facts in order finally to dispel the idea that ' the latest Harcourt dispatch contains anything new or urgent,, as was erroneously supposed liy some' insufficiently informed critics. While ho is in London, Mb. Allen will assuredly go fully into, the question with tho British Government, and upon his return our own Government cannot well avoid facing the position. There is more than one method of securing that "more continuous representation" 011 the Defence Committee which is far more desirable in the interests of the Dominions than in the interests of the Mother Country. A Cabinet. Minister who shall reside in London is one way; there is the other way of a periodical and fairly prolonged annual visit to London by a Minis-

tcr from this country—the method which Mr. Bohden evidently contemplated last year. But it is much to be hoped that no attempt will be made to arouse or cncouragc any expectation that a voice, and an car at the meetings of the Defcnce Coin-' mittee (which is not an executive body in any sense) will lead to, or imjjly any right to, a voice in the decision of British foreign policy. That the Dominions must come into active co-operation with the Mother Country in the arrangement of the Empire's defcnce (such co-operation as has been established in other fields through the Imperial Conferences) is more than' desirable:. it is necessary. But in movijig towards this closer marching, the statesmen of the Dominions will err tragically if they do not at every step insist that for the present, and for many years to come, the' Empire's foreign policy must be the policy of .Great Britain, and that that policy must remain in the hands of the British Government alone, which may lie trusted to shape its policy in the interests of, and according to thp needs, and even the desires of, the'oversea partners.