IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

Hokitika Guardian, 17 January 1921, Page 4

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

MEETING IN JUNE

LONDON, Nov. 18. "1 have been anxious for some time past to renew as soon as possible that' personal consultation between Prime Ministers which produced such good re- ! suits in the last two years of the war and at Paris,” said the Prime Minister in answer to a question in the House last week. "I recently made enquiries of my colleagues in the Dominions as to the date which would be most gen- I erally suitable for them, and I am glad to say that a meeting with the Prime Ministers of the Empire has been arranged for the middle of June, 1921.” Mr Lloyd George, answering a supplementary question, said that the holding of the Conference at Ottawa had been discussed, but he did not state had been the result. Those who are in touch with representative Canadian opinion declare that it would give much satisfaction, not alone in Canada, but in other Dominions, if the place of this momentous gat ering, where the status of the Dominions will come under detailed discussion, was the Dominion capital. <, In a lending article "The Times” recalls the fact that in May, 1917, the Imperial War Conference passed a resolution recording the opinion that "the readjustment of the constitutional relations of the component parts of the Empire” was “too important and intricate a subject to be dealt with during the war,” and recommending that it “ should form the subject of a special Imperial Conference to be snmnioned as soon as possible after the cessation of hostilities.” The resolution also asserted that the recognition of full autonomy for the Dominions most be the basis of the discussions at this special Conference; that the right of India as well as of the Dominions “to an adequate voice in foreign policy and in foreign relations” must be recognised ; and that the business of the special Conference would lie to "provide effective arrangements for contimi ous consultation in all important matters of common Imperial concern, and for such necessary concerted action,; founded on consultation, as the several Governments may determine.” "The terms of the resolution of 1917,” it is stated, "set out a clear international position of the component States of' the Empire. They picture the Empire as ail association of selfgoverning States, with all the rights of self-government, bound by the common tie of the Crown, and conducting the common affairs of their national partnership through periodic consultations among their leaders. This conception of the Empire is certainly that which has captured the imagination of the Dominion peoples. Their Prime -Ministers signed the Peace Treaty as the representatives of Sovereign States within the British association of

States. "All the Dominions have been absorbed, since the armistice, in the readjustment of their own affairs after the war. It has been convenient for them to let the British Government act for them in international affairs, as before the war. But we are convinced that this does not mean that the Dominions will he content to return to their pre-war international status, or that they see no importance in the signature of the Peace Treaty by their Prime Ministers. Ear from it; they have clearly in their minds the conception of the Empire as an associated hand of self-governing States, owing allegiance to the same Sovereign. They see clearly the' practical difficulties of that conception as a working principle in international affairs. And we are much mistaken if they do not look forward to the meeting of their Prime Ministers with the British Ministers next June as the first opportunity since the war for giving effect in detail to these ideas. Empire government, in their view, must be government by consultation between equal States. That j principle was tried in war time and

found to be workable. The task of the Conference in June will be to devise plans for making the same principle efleetive and efficient, as a working basis of Empire government, in times of peace.” In the House yesterday Mr Bonar Law stated that the meeting of Prime Ministers, summoned for June next, would be on the lines of the Imperial War Cabinet meetings of 1917 and 1918, and would deal with many urgent questions of common interest which

called for co-ordination of policy and action by the different Governments of the Empire. The agenda would be a matter for subsequent settlement with the Dominion Prime Ministers. There was general agreement that Imperial defence matters would require joint examination in the near future, but he was not able to say precisely what arrangements would be made for their discussion. -Major O’Neill asked; Are we to understand that the very important question of readjustment of constitutional relations between different parts of the Empire will be debarred from discussion at the forthcoming Conference? Mr Honar Law’s reply was inaudible.