COLONIAL CONFERENCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3763, 13 April 1907, Page 3

COLONIAL CONFERENCE.

The Leadership.

London, April n. The Pall Mall Gazette says the Premiers are entitled to meet Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman. They claim the status of partners and equals, and have not crossed the %eas to participate in Oxford Union debates to be summed up in an amicably deprecatory key by the { Colonial Secretary. At Home the / Radicals had not noticed the progress of events in the outer Empire. The colonies were intent on a closer alliance and co-operation. If the Government treated that ambition indifferently, they could still draw closer amongst themselves. Preference was the key to the identity of interests and the secret of amity. The Chronicle strongly urges Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman to assume the general Presidency of the Imperial Conference, which in a perfect rudimentary form, is an Imperial Parliament. The visiting Premiers consider ,Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman •ought to preside, but the matter

is entirely one for the Home Government’s decision.

London, April 12

The Premiers have discussed the methods of procedure which Lord Elgin proposes to adopt at the Conference, with a view to economising time. They expressed a strong opinion that the Conference was of sufficient importance to justify Sir Henry CampbellBannerman in presiding over it, at any rate at the opening.

It is almost certain that Sir Henry will agree to preside, but the Colonial Premiers propose to interview him on the subject.

Some of the colonial Premiers desire that the press should be admitted to the proceedings of the Conference, but the British Government is unlikely to acquiesce in the suggestion. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, after a short stay at Cannes, has returned to London.