IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

Taranaki Daily News, 19 November 1926, Page 7

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

RAPID PROGRESS MADE

CAUSE FOR SATISFACTION THE END NEXT TUESDAY By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Nov. 18, 5.5 pun. London, Nov. 17. Official circles to-night expressed the belief that the Imperial Conference would definitely end on Tuesday next. It is highly probable that General Hertzog will be aboard a ship going home on Wednesday. Leading Dominion representatives tonight, in reply to a question, said that General Hertzog would undoubtedly go home a happy man, with a freer and clearer vision of the Empire. It is suggested that a revelation of the manner wherein the Premiers handled the problems of inter-imperial relations and treaty formalities will perhaps be indicated after the plenary meeting on Saturday. An idea of the lines of procedure is contained in a semiofficial hint to-night. “There is nothing constitutional; we have merely been takings tilings which happened in the past, linking the ends together, ironing out little blemishes, and clipping anyfrayed edges.” This has been the key note of recent speeches by Mr. Amery and Sir Austen Chamberlain. It is not disclosing any secret to say that Mr. Bruce and Mr. Coates are most pleased with the way things have shaped. The fear that is exercising the minds of members of the conference is that the inescapable necessity of issuing a mass of conclusions on Monday- and Tuesday next will cause a blurred impression of what has been achieved. However, everybody' is most confident that as the facts are seized by politicians and the thinking public, there will arise the deepest satisfaction, that Imperia! relations will emerge stronger, and that misunderstandings which have caused rumblings since the 1923 conference have been entirely removed. Received Nov. 18, 8.15 p.m. London, Nov. 17.

There was no plenary meeting of the Imperial Conference to-day. Commit-

tees dealt with the questions of nation ality and British policy in the Antarc

The economic sub-committee has completed its report on films and practically exhausted its. agenda. All committee work is expected to be finished this week-end.

Following on the visit to Cardington, the Air Communications Committee is ready to draft its report, and the conference will probably end on Tuesday. Mr. Bruce and Mr. Coates will accompany the other Premiers to Edinburgh on November 24, going thence to Glasgow, where the new cruisers will be inspected.