IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 March 1916, Page 3

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

IS MR. MASSEY GOING HOME? (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, March 10. During recent months the cablegrams have suggested on several that the dominions' Prime Ministers, Mr. Massey among the others, were being invited to visit London in order to ati?nd an Imperial Conference. We were told as long ago as October that "Australasian representation on the War Council" had become imperative, and 'Ciat the Imperial Government "would welcome the representation owing to the desire to be in closer touch with Australasian feeling." The matter has been mentioned again during the last few days. The fact is, however, that the dominions statesmen have not been invited to an Imperial Conference. The British Ministers have indicated all along that they would be glad to welcome dominion representatives and to give them facilities for gathering information of an official kind. But Mr. ftsquith and his colleagues do not think a formal Imperial Conference desirable at the present juncture, and they have not extended formal invitations to dominion Ministers to proceed to London. A message published to-day states that Mr. Bouar Law, when speaking at a luncheon in honor of Mr. Hughes, "extended an invitation to the colonies to participate in! the councils of the Empire." It does not seem likely that any special significance attaches to a sentiment expressed in those general terms. Mr. Bonar Law has again and again stated his conviction that the dominions must eventually be given a share in the administration of Imperial affairs. He is a Canadian himself, and he understands colonial feelings. But the sentence quoted above does not amount to an invitation to an Imperial Conference this year. Mr. Massey has indicated more than once lately that the date of the next Parliamentary session in Now Zealand is dependent upon some contingency he is not yet in a position to disclose.' Beading between the lines one may guess I that the contingency has relation to the wishes of the Imperial Government concerning the visit of dominion statesmen to London. There will b e an Imperial Conference before the treaty of peace is signed. The date of the conference has not v«t been fixed, for obvious reasons, If the big German offensive fails, we may be nearer exact information on the point.