IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19994, 11 January 1927, Page 13

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

FINAL PROCEEDINGS. DEFENCE AND FOREIGN RELATIONS. MR COATES’S STATEMENT. (Feom Oub Own Coebespondent-) LONDON. November 27. The Imperial Conference, which opened at 10 Downing Street on October 19, came to an end on November 23. During that period there were 16 plenary meetings, 146 meetings of committees and sub-com-mittees, and technical discussions on deference questions at the Admiralty, War Office, and Air Ministry. There was also a meeting of the Committee of Imperial Defence, which was attended by all the Prime Ministers and heads of delegations, at which certain matters were remitted to a technical sub-committee, which later held one meeting. CONCLUDING RESOLUTIONS. A large number of questions on the Agenda, particularly those of a more technical character, were referred to committees and sub-committeea for examination and report to the Imperial Conference. This arrangement was, in part, due to the fact that it had been settled in the course of the correspondence between the Governments, which preceded the conference Jjhat there should be no separate, Imperial Economic Conference as in 1923. It was also partly caused by the length of the Agenda and the short time at the disposal of the conference. The plan adopted, under which many matters were first discussed by committees, the reports and recommendations subsequently coining before the confeernce for endorsement, turned out to 'bo most successful. On the one hand, it extended the time available for the examination of a series of complicated subjects, since committees could sit simultaneously. On the other hand, it enabled the conclusions reached and the resolutions adopted to be recommended to the various Governments of the Empire with the full authority of the Imperial Conference. At the concluding meeting, the conference adopted the following resolution: “The Imperial Conference desires to express its appreciation of the work accomplished bv the chairmen and members of the various committees and sub-committees which have been engaged in the discussion of particular subjects. “The conference feels that the detailed study of these, subjects in committee has been of great value, and should also prove most useful in promoting future collaboration between the expert advisers of the various Governments who have worked together so successfully in the preparation of reports and recommendations for the conference.” The conference also passed the following resolution at its last meeting:— “At the conclusion of the session of the Imperial Conference, the Prime Minister of Great Britain and his colleagues desire to place on record the great pleasure which it has been to them to welcome in London the Prime Ministers of the dominions and o<Wfe;r from overseas. On their part, the Prime Ministers and representatives of the dominions and India wish to express their thanks to the Prime Minister and other members of the Government in Great Britain for the constant attention _ which they have given ■ to the organisation and work of the , conference in spite of the pressure of other important duties. , “The members of the conference are convinced that not only the actual work done during the past few weeks, but also the opportunity which the conference has afforded for intimate consultation and the strengthening of friendship, will be of the greatest importance in promotLpg in all parts of the Empire unity of thought and co-operation in action.” At the closing meeting of. the Conference the Prime Minister of Canada, said:— May I add a word of personal appreciation of the spirit which has marked all the proceedings of this conference? Nothing could have_ exceeded the courtesy and kindness of his Majesty’s Ministers in Great Britain as a Government and as individuals. The arrangements for the conduct of our business could not have been more thorough and complete, and the opportunities afforded for personal and social intercourse have been more than exceptional. Above all, I think, we appreciate the friendliness and the frankness of che attitude of the members of the Government throughout our discussions in Conference and in Committee. This, if I may say so, could have found no finer expression than in the manner in which you, Prime Minister, have presided over these deliberations. In the midst of the most onerous and exacting of public duties you have given unsparing time and thought to the proceedings of the Conference, and have at all times exercised a degree of patience and Judgment which has commanded our highest admiration. As regards all the delegations present, I think we shall agree that there has been a striking readiness and desire to understand and appreciate one another’s point of view and special difficulties. It in no way subtracts from the importance of any specific report or conclusion to acknowledge, as I believe, we all shall, that the greatest achievement of the Conference is the evidence its proceedings nave afforded of the common standards, the fundamental unity of purpose and ideals, and the desire to work'out a sound basis for enduring co-operation which have marked all its deliberations. If what ve have accomplished in these past six weeks contributes anything to the maintenance and extension of that spirit, as I believe it will, we may face (he future will all confidence. I should like also to express appreciation of the work of the conference secretaries. The untiring energy, exceptional skill, ard nover-failimr good will of Sir Maurice Hankey and Mr Harding have made_ smooth many difficult paths and have unified the proceedings in many material particuMT«. To all those who have co-operated with and assisted them in the difficult tasks of these crowded weeks, we are equally grateful. It is not easy, to take farewell of colleagues whose place of meeting hay beep amid surroundings so replete with historic interest and to whom, ns the days have gone hr, attachments have become increasingly strong. Tfc is some compensation, however, to be able to carry away a friendship greatly strengthened between all parts of the British Empire through personal contact with those who have represented its manv interests here, and an enhanced appreciation of the greatness of the common inheritance we share. MR BRUCE. Mr Bruce, Prime Minister of Australia, said: — _ , Before this Conference dissolves I desire to express my appreciation of the maimer in which, you, Sir, as Prime Minister and Chairman,' and your Cabinet colleagues, have met us. 1 have previously stated that, in my opinion, one of the mam results of Imperial Conferences is the effective way in which they focus the attention of the public throughout the Empire upon great Imperial questions. This has been achieved to a very marked degree in the present instance. It is true that in the five weeks which have passed we have accomplished a groat deal of important and useful work. In some directions, perhaps, it may have been impossible to go as far as we individually would have liked, but even on these matters we have made considerable progress. In other directions it is not too much to say that we have made an epoch-marking advance. The result has been that not only throughout the Empire, but throughout Europe and America, the press reports indicate a very widespread public interest in our deliberations. They have followed very closely and interestedly the doings of this great Imperial family, and what we have done here has given to the world a clearer conception than ever before of what we mean by an Empire of completely self-governing nations, jealous of their autonomy, yet proud of their Imperial unity I feel that pur status as individual nations has been increased, while at the same time the prestige of the whole Empire has been considerably enhanced. I think we may well be proud of the material achievements of this Conference. , It marks a very definite step forward on the road of Imperial progress. But I wish to refer more particularly to what I may call the spiritual effects, we are here, in the first place, as representatives of our respective countries: wo are. in one sense, merely portions of the machinery of government, but we are also men who react and respond to influences and atmospheres and whose work in the one sphere is seriously affected by what occurs in the other. *a which you, Mr

Minister, and your colleagues have met us, the sympathetic way in which you have approached our problems, end the practical assistance which you have always given us have contributed in a far greater measure than appears on the surface to the achievement of the important results about which I have just spoken. The report of the Conference will indicate to our Parliaments and people only one part of what has been achieved. We who have had the privilege of meeting each other will go away feeling, even more deeply than I can express, how closely this great Empire is linked together, and what a warm vein of friendship permeates every portion of it. Such a happy result could only have come from personal contact, and could only have been made possible by the cordial atmosphere which you, Sir, and your colleagues, have done so much to create. We more deeply appreciate your unremitting attention to our many problems when we remember that during the course of this Conference you and your Government have been faced with a great industrial upheaval which meant more perhaps to Britain at the moment than any of our problems might have meant to us. We know that you occasionally left this Conference Chamber only to carry on most important deliberations elsewhere. May 1 express the hope that all your efforts in that other sphere will be as successful as have been your efforts here? I take this opportunity also of expressing my thanks to, and appreciation of, the secratariat, particularly Sir Maurice Hankey and Mr Harding, for all that they have done. The physical labours of this conference have far exceeded those of any previous one. Committees have been sitting continuously and simultaneously, but at no stage was there any confusion or delay. For this we Prime Ministers owe a debt of gratitude to the staffs who made it possible. GENERAL HERTZOG. The Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, General Hertzog, said: I am not going to add much to what has been said already by Mr Mackenzie King and Mr Bruce, except that I agree with all they have said. In leaving this conference we shall all feel how we are all co-operators in one great scheme, and how necessary it is that we meet from time to time to see one another, and may I just add this in conclusion, in order to understand really what is the feeling and the spirit here in London? I may say this, that I shall certainly leave this conference and go back with a feeling that I do not think often happens in the history of anyone attending an important gathering such as this, that I leave fully satisfied that whatever I wanted to have and to attain has been attained ajt these meetings, and what is more, it has been attained with the full co-operation and sympathy of all when we have met together. MR O’HIGGINS. Mr O’Higgins. Minister of justice, Irish Free State, said: I -would not like to let this matter pass without saying that our delegation would wish to be associated fully with what has been said by the Prime Ministers of Canada, Australia, and South Africa. We recognise with gratitude that every matter which was raised by us has received fair and friendly consideration by all those who participated in our deliberations. Proposals which we felt necessary to bring forward were considered at short notice and with the greatest care and the fullest desire to meet us in a reasonable way on every issue that was raised. We are very pleased with the general result of the conference, and we feel that this conference will be pointed back to as work that was very much in the interests, not merely of particular component parts of the British Commonwealth, but in the interests of the whole. MR COATES. The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mr Coates, said:— - I desire to associate myself with what has been said by the Prime Ministers of Canada, Australia, and South Africa, and by Mr o‘Higgins on behalf of the Irish Free Statei and to say how much I appreciate not only the opportunity of attending this Imperial Conference, but the ready assistance that has been extended to us on every occasion by British Ministers, and also the co-operation of other members of the Conference, in some eases possibly holding different’ opinions, but at any rate showing respect for any divergent point of view that may have been expressed. It all goes to show how valuable these meetings are. My fehling is _ that it is possible for me now to communicate more readily with any member of the Conference knowing that my standpoint will be understood and respected, and that the personal relationships thus formed will be of value to all the different parts of the Empire one with the other. I recognise that you, Prime Minister, have controlled the Conference with an admirable spirit. You have a happy way of getting us all to work- for you and with you. You hare got us into complete harmony, and that spirit has permeated right through all our deliberations. I do not know that I place so much importance upon what is written, though I realise that what is written may be of great importance to the . people in the different parts of the Empire who saw difficulties which perhaps did not exist. A strong or dogmatic view cannot always be accepted, but I am sure that what we have done will assist our family relations in different parts of the Empire. I can only say that it has been a privilege— and I am sure I speak on behalf of all _my colleagues—to have had the opportunity of meeting the members of the Conference, particularly as they have shown such a readiness to try to evolve something which we all believe will heln towards further cementing the bonds of Empire. Our deliberations will have a powerful effect, not only within our Empire, but also on other parts of the world. In conclusion, I wish to say how much I appreciate the assistance that Sir Maurice Hankey, Mr Harding, and the other members of the Secretariat have rendered by their thoroughness and their willingness—irrespective of time and trouble—to meet our wishes and make matters move smoothly. MR MONROE. The Premier of Newfoundland, Mr Monroe, said:— I have nothing to say except that our delegation is in entire accord with the views that have been so fully and admirably expressed by others. INDIA. Lord Birkenhead, Secretary of State for India, said:— It would not be in accordance with my own domestic position that I should attempt to bandy compliments with my colleagues, but I have an associate in my task whose efforts and co-operation I have deeply valued, the second in command of the Indian delegation, a very distinguished Indian nobleman, who is also a man of affairs, of experience, of profound patriotism and with an appreciation of the Commonwealth of Nations as we have examined it the last few weeks. It would, T think, be quite accordant with the wishes of all of us, and with the agreeable task to which so many have contributed to-day, if the Maharajah were permitted to say one word instead of myselt. The Maharajah of Burdwan said: — I beg to thank you. sir, and your colleagues for your courtesy and kindly consideration to all the Indian delegation and also all the Dominion Prime Ministers for their kindness. Personally, sir, I wish to convey my most grateful thanks to every one of you round this table for the cordiality and for the groat friendship you have shown me, and I should be failing in my duty if I did not convey my thanks to Lord Balfour for the great patience with which he has presided over that important committee on inter-Imperial relations. Also, I should like to thank Sir Maurice Hankey and others for their great help. MR BALDWIN’S REPLY. Mr Baldwin. Prime Minister of Great Britain, said: Mr Mackenzie King, I know’l speak for every one of my colleagues when I say how grateful wo are to you and those who 1 have spoken for all the kind references they j have made to anything we have been able to do. I am very glad that the Imperial Conference has met this year, even though j it has taken place in the midst of pre- j occupations, graver and more embarrassing j Ilian we have had for some years, and for j this reason. If it be the fact, as some of you have so kindly said, that you derive strength from meeting in council here, so much the more is that the case with us, because I have found that the more presence of you all from all corners of the world, in conference here, in the spirit that has prevailed, seems to have filled one with a new vigour and a new hope, and you have certainly brought refreshment to all of us. . With regard to what you say as to the ' work of Sir Maurice Henkey and his stall, ,1 we on this side would like to endorse that, , and 1 know Sir Maurice would like mo to toil you what he has so often said in private, how conscious he is of the help he has received from all the delegations that have come to London for this Conference. 1 feel that we all of us owe a great debt (o the Secretariat from the top to the bottom —not forgetting the typists, whose work boa veea very heavy this time and who, by

t be rapidity and accuracy of their work-, have contributed very much to aid us in the fulfilment of our labours. This Conference —and 1 say this with gome humility in the presence of Lord Balfour, whose memory goes back so much farther than mine—has been marked by as fine a spirit as any Conference that has ever met : n this country, and 1 think tue progress that has been made may be measured, not so much perhaps by the written words, as Mr Coates said—important as those written words are —but rather by the refreshment of the spirit in everv corner of the Empire, a spirit in which I hope the work "ill go forward in years to # come. It has been an immense pleasure to all of us to have you here, and we only hope that you will take away with you as pleasant memories as you will leave behind you. ‘ VALUABLE AND LASTING WORK-” Mr Coates, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, has made the following statement: — The outstanding feature, as 1 see it, of the conference that has just concluded has been the spirit of goodwill and of tolerance that has animated the representatives from every portion of the Empire. The extent to which each member of the conference has appreciated and respected points of view not in all respects similar to bis own has been most marked, and with the existence of this very healthy spirit it has been a pleasure to debate the important subjects listed for consideration, and a very much easier task than might otherwise have been the case to arrive at conclusions satisfactory to all. That it has been possible to decide questions of great intricacy and of the utmost importance, bearing as they do upon sections of our people differing widely in many cases in race, in history, in geographical position, and in numerical strength is, I think, a wonderful achievement, and one of very_ happy augury for the future of the Empire. ■ The conclusions arrived at by the conference on the vital question of interimperial relations should not be. regarded as in any way an attempt to lay down any fixed, written form of Constitution. They represent rather the principle* which we are all agreed should serve as a guide in our relations one- with the other, leaving to the future the usual play of adaptation so characteristic of British policy. The position of New Zealand on this matter is well known—we have been entirely satisfied with our standing as an integral portion of the Empire, and with our existing form of relations with his Majesty’s Government in Great Britain, but we regard agreement as the main requirement in the structure of the Empire, and have been glad to fall in with any proposal that will remove the misapprehensions and misunderstandings that appeared at one time to have been likely to arise. On the economic side the conference haa, m my opinion, done valuable and lasting work. The effect will not be immediate, but in the future it will, I think, be. found that the Empire will be stronger economically as the result of the deliberations of the conference than could posibly have been expected without such a means of consultation and advice. T wish to stress very strongly my appreciation of the value of the personal intercourse between representatives of Great Britain, of all th© dominions, and of India that has been afforded by the conference. The knowledge that has been obtained of individual viewpoints and of individual difficulties must be of inestimable value in removing the cause of any possible misunderstandings in the future. I feel satisfied with the results of the conference and confident that the Empire will be the stronger for its work I think this is the general opinion of all members of _ the conference; of these feelings and principles with goodwill and understanding. A NEW THING—INTANGIBLE AND UNFETTERED. The Times remarks that the conference closed with an unusually good record. “The doubts and anxieties of which so much was heard at the beginning have clearly been dispelled ; an excellent spirit was displayed by common consent throughout the discussions: the best evidence of the success of the conference is that all its very various members are satisfied. . . . From some previous conferences the visitors have gone away with a vague feeling of disappointment. Why. they asked themselves, had they come so far for so little? This time the impression is obviously very different. Something has really been done, and yet what has been done it is not even now very easy to define. This 'change of spirit, this new sense of hope and confidence, cannot be put down to any startling changes, because the conference has made none. But its members have surveyed together the position and resources of the Empire in the world as it now is, and in so doing they have in a sense rediscovered the Empire.” An American comment is that the frank statement of actual conditions means either the beginning of the break-up of the British Empire or the first step in a more glorious era of its development. “If one may judge by the spirit of the conference in its closing days, the latter alternative has a good deal more in it* favour (continues The Times). Something new has evidently happened. This new thing is intangible and unfettered, just as the Empire itself, and its parts, are unfettered by precedent and are free tomeet what the future may bring. The new tiring is. perhaps, the sense of a greater and more effective unity in such a freedom. It would, of course, be wholly inopportune to exaggerate the results of the conference, to assert completion or accomplishment when all is in movement, when what has really been gained is a clear recognition of the fact of movement, of growth, of varied development over a wide area, as the essence of the Imperial connection. GO FORWARD IN CO-OPERATION. . . . ‘‘The part played by the members of the British Government in these proceedings has certainly not been over-expressed; the tendency has been rather towards selfeffacement —perhaps lest any suspicion of a lingering desire for domination should persist. But there is implicit evidence in the concluding speeches of the dominion. Ministers that they found the representatives of the Government of Great Britain modern and sensitive men, acutely aware of the nature of the problems that confront saclr dominion and the Empire as a whole, and also fully informed of the conditions of the new world in which those problems have to be worked out. A few slightlv irritating formalities and anachronisms have melted into insignificance in the atmosphere of the Conference. The clear compensation for that loss, if it is a loss, is the voluntary recognition of the leadership of Great Britain in the new Imperial effort, the character of which—suggested, adumbrated, partially outlined in the work of the Conference on questions of migration, settlement, communications, defence and foreign relations —seems finally to have stirred the imagination of all the participants Each of the Dominion Governments has its own local problems,, some perhaps petty- but many more that, as they have discovered afresh, reverberate throughout the Empire, and are moreover a reflex of conditions that prevail throughout the modern world. . . . None of them can be completely solved in isolation. The ground is cleared of political doubts about the nature of the Empire, and a new opportunity is given to go forward—in cooperation, ns General Hertzog insists. . . “The world is very much awake, and tha further successful development of the Empire depends now not on preconceptions, not even on sentiment, but on a very alert intelligence that recognises both existing facts and the continuing necessity of a forward movement. The Empire, as tha Conference has made plain, has a wonderful heritage, both intellectual and material. That heritage cannot be safely held unless it is energetically developed by all the variety of means that the Empire in fact possesses.” THE SPIRIT OF THE CONFERENCE. Perhaps the general atmosphere of the Conference is best summed up in the words of a Minister who has been present at every meeting and who has given the accompanying message to the political correspondent of the Financial Times: “Its spirit was the thing that struck me most about the whole Conference. .1 have attended all the Imperial Conferences since 1911, and on this occasion I detected a new spirit. One could not help feeling that die Empire had now reached a definite stage in its development. Up till now we have thought of the Empire as being the Mother Country, as a focus with the dominions snread out at the end of lines op the map. From the atmosphere of this year’s meeting it seems that this conception has changed, and that we must now think of the Empire as being a web, each part having » definite relationship to each other part. W e have now the different parts of the Empire trading together and communicating direct. The practical results of the Conference have been considerable, bat to my mind it is the spirit of understanding which has made itself so apparent that i* most to be prized.” The friendly spirit of the Conference was well indicated in the brief speeches which wore made at the final meeting.