IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 315, 31 May 1911, Page 5

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

CONFERRING ON DEFENCE. By Cable—Press Association—CiipyrighL London, May 29. The Imperial Conference delegates attended the levee, and conferred in the afternoon with the Committee of Defence. PRINCESS CHRISTIAN'S RECEPTION. Received 30, 9.20 p.m. London, May 30.

At the Princess Christian's reception to overseas viistors, 400 were present, including Princesses Victoria and Marie Louise. Lord and Lady Selborne, Lord and Lady Minto, Lord Kitchener, Lady Ward, the Primate of New Zealand and many Australians and Canadians were among those present. DOMINIONS AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

COLONIAL PREMIERS TO BE CONSULTED. MR. HARCOURT'S STATEMENT. (Wellington Times' correspondent.) London, April 21. Will the Colonial Premiers be admitted at the Imperial Conference into the secret counsels of the Imperial Government in regard to foreign policy and the international situation!

To this question, which was raised in the House of Commons on Wednesday in a discussion on Imperial affairs, the Colonial Secretary returned an emphatic affirmative. In a speech which evoked cheers from both sides of the House, Mr. Lewis Harcourt said:—

"I do not propose to make anything in the nature of a speech in reply to the right hon. gentleman (Mr. Alfred Lyttclton). With much of what he has said to-night, in sketching the establishment and development of the colonial situation and the naval situation, I find myself in complete agreement. I have risen not to debate the matter with him. but to answer the question which the right hon. gentleman has put to me, and I intend to be brief because my hon. friend the Under-Secretary has met the situation as it was placed before the House. The right hon. gentleman definitely asked me whether it is the intention of the Government to take the Prime Ministers of our great dominions into consultation on matters of international concern. It has always been our intention from the very first to do so. (General cheers.) We shall withhold from them no information which they desire. (Hear, hear.) We shall proffer to them all useful knowledge which may be of service to them in the great work they have to perform. But we shall do all that under absolute secrecy, and I must warn the House that we are not to be liable to be asked here what .information we have given them or on what subjects. It has always been our intention to summon the Prime Ministers of the dominions to the meetings of the Committee of Imperial Defence. (Cheers.) Of that Committee of Imperial Defence the Prime Minister is the president and the Foreign Secretary and I arc members of it. They will meet in the secrecy of that committee, and they will be able to receive all the information, and more, probably, than had been suggested even by the debates in the House. But I beg the House not to attempt by resolution carried here to dictate to the Imperial Conference the method in which it shall conduct its business." (Cheers.) DOMINION'S AND WORLD POLITICS. Following on Mr. Haicourt's statement, Mr. H. J. Mackindcr (Unionist), who, by the way, was Mr. Pembcr Reeves' predecessor as Principal of the London School of, Economics, urged the Government to give the dominions a lead, instead of leaving the initiative in Imperial affairs to come from the dominions.

It was needful, he urged, to consider the world balance of power, and it was essential that the responsible authorities in the Empire should have before them the entire theory and position of foreign affairs, and not merely those things which interested the colonies in their own corner of the world. Ministers still maintained the attitude of masterly inactivity. Many things had happened since 1907, and in the view of many persons the time had come when the Government should take a certain lead. Now there were independent navies in the dominions;-'tarifr treaties had been made recently; Ijliere was tli* question of emigration; and before the Conference, in 1015, there would he the determination of the Japanese Alliance and the opening of the Panama Canal. To a considerable extent the centre of world polities was shifting, and the dominions were passing into the forefro»t of the battle. It was a very different battle from that of the past, for in the Far East there were new problems which might very quickly become the chief problems of the world. Our dominions were aware of that. What they required was our support, and the time had come for us to offer them our support in the Far East in return for their support in Europe. It might be that we were looking too far ahead, but coming events cast their shadows before them, and before long we should see the opening of the Panama Canal bringing the United States into the Pacific. We should have to consider not only the relations of the Empire to Far Western countries, but also to the United States. These were things which must be discussed before they became urgent in order that the different Governments should he in a position to educate their separate democracies. This would take time. What he contended was that there was now a totally changed position, and that it was no longer necessary to wait for the first move to come from the dominions. The dominions were asking for our support by the action they had taken with regard to military and naval matters. We could now abandon our policy of masterly inactivity and take the'dominions fully into our confidence, discussing what was likely to happen in the immediate future. Further than that, the whole Empire ought to he assured that such a discussion had taken place, and the upshot had been satisfactory. (Cheers.) VISITS TO THE DOMINIONS.

Mr. Guinness, Unionist member for Bury St. Edmunds, contended that the business of the dominions should be entrusted to a special Cabinet Minister, the Crown colonies being as now administered under the control of the Secretary for the Colonics. Such a Minister, he said, would find plenty of scope for his activities in encouraging and giving effect to common action in matters of common interest throughout the Empire. One of the most valuable functions of such a Minister would be to visit the dominions and keep in close personal touch with them; and there was no doubt that, as a new means of contact and fertilising relationship, it would be of great value if in the Cabinet of each of the dominions there was a Minister for Imperial Affairs, whose duty it should be to keep in touch with the Minister for Imperial Affairs in Great Britain, te carry on all communications

with the Imperial Government, unci' to promote the closest understanding with them. The proposal of the New Zealand Government was that their High Commissioner should be given much more responsible functions than he had exercised hitherto, and should be the means of communication between the Imperial and the Dominion Governments; but while recognising that the dominions had sent some of their most eminent public men to represent them in this country, it was impossible to believe that a High Commissioner living in this country could keep so closely in touch with colonial opinion and the wishes of the majority pf a colonial Legislature as a member of a dominion Cabinet could- do.