The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “ The West Coast Times.” TUESDAY, JUNE 21st, 1921.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 June 1921, Page 2

The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “ The West Coast Times.” TUESDAY, JUNE 21st, 1921.

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE. Moke than ordinary interest is going to centre in the Imperial Conference now sitting in London. The partnership of the oversea dominions in the affairs of the Empire are now more intimate, and the views of the visiting Prime .Ministers on various public questions have been canvassed by an active press to a greater degree than ever before. The war lias brought the dominions more and -more into prominence, and rightly they are being given a larger voice in Imperial affairs. Without counting the cost the dominions plunged into the war, assisting Great Britain with men, material, and money. Canada, for instance, enrolled over hnll'-a-million men for the war, and left over 60,0(X) dead in France and Belgium, liei- money she poured out, and munitions and supplies she turned out to th o limit of her power. Other countries within the Empire did no less in proportion to their means. The bugle call of battle rang out, and from every corner of the vast Empire there was tli, ready response, the ready sacrifice, and the readiness to carry on to victory. The Dominions were given a voice in the making of peace. Now they are t > liavo a very prominent place in the I:, perial councils. Arising out of the war are many questions vitally affecting the oversea countries. The war stretched so far, so vast were the interests at stake, that now with the reckoning to he made, each Dominion still has some vital interests at stake. <k All are concerned in Great Britain’s future de-

fence policy, for the war linked all parts of the Empire irrevocably together. Each has its concern about Great Britain’s immediate allies and her defensive alliances. All have racial questions to settle within the Empire ; and all are concerned very materially in Empiro trade and commerce; in industrial laws and,customs tariffs; and in all the great ramifications which go to make up a nation’s business and undertaking. These questions have been discussed previously. They had some application before. Now they are

vitally important, and each is entitled to a say in great international questions which a decade ago were left entirely to the judgment of the Motherland. The press at Home has kept the work of the Conference very much to the fore, and the different shades of opinion have been brought out in a matter of detail rarely attempted before. Some of the Prime Ministers are prone to be loquacious, and this weakness has been taken advantage of bv the ready pressmen seeking acceptable “copy.” Other Ministers have been moro discreet, and among the number is our own Prime Minister, Mr Massey, who has not been over verbose in advance. It is just as well that lie should be so circumspect, for after all the i-eal business will bo done behind closed doors, where with a fuller knowledge of the position than may lie revealed publicly, Ministers must make up their minds on fncts as they are, and not on surmises or predilections as they would foster them. The Conference will serve a great purpose for formulating Britain’s foroign policy and will bo an occasion pregnant with great possibilties and opportunities for the future.