THE COLONIAL OFFICE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8519, 27 August 1907, Page 5

THE COLONIAL OFFICE.

PROPOSED REFOKMS. Received August 26, 7.11 a.m. LONDON, August 25. In connection with the Colonial Office reform proposals, it is stated that the scope of the Dominion Department includes protectorates and possessions geographically dependent upon the self-governing colonies, while the General Department will deal with legal, financial, and other business,- with a standing committee taking a collective view regarding/ contracts, concessions,- and patron- J age. THE TIMES' COMMENTS. Received August 26, 7.19 a.m. LONDON, August 25. The Times describes the re-arrange-ment of the Colonial Office as a direct fruit of the late Imperial Conference. It says:—"lt is a matter of great significance that this term 'colonial' should be confined to the Crown colonies; that the secretariat to the conference should be inside the Colonial Offict is an anomaly, and can only be 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, The Times declares, need for keeping in the closest touch with colonial feeling, and the paper suggests that the Government oughl. to be ready to go outside the Colonial Office in appointing officials to the secretariat.