COLONIAL OFFICE REFORM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 27 August 1907, Page 3

COLONIAL OFFICE REFORM.

London, August 25. In connection with the Colonial Otlice • reform proposals, i f is stated that the scope of the Dominion Department will include matters connected with Protectorates and possessions geographically dependent upon the self-governing colonies The general department will deal with legal, financial, and other business. It will have a standing committee.

THE TIMES' OPINION. London, August 25. %The Times descries the rearrangement of the Colonial Office as the direct fruit of the late Imperial Conference, The paper says: ''lt is a matter of great significance that this term 'colonial' should be confined to the Crown colonics. That the Secretariat to the Conference should be inside the Colonial Office is an anomaly and can only l>e a transition to a further stage of development. As the Conference placed the Imperial states on an equality with the Home Government. the Secretariat must be ultimately responsible exclusively to the heads of these states, under the chairmanship of the Motherland's Premier. "There is," I the Times declares, "need for keeping in closest touch with colonial feeling." It suggests that the Government ought to | lie ready to go outside the Colonial Office in appointing officials to the Secretariat.