A.—2

11

The Secretary of State for the Colonies (The Earl of Elgin) : I need not say that I shall be as succinct as possible at this hour of the night. But, as the noble Earl has said, this is a matter which has attracted a good deal of attention, not only in this country, but also in the Colonies, and I should like, as I am now able to do, to give some explanation as to the steps which we propose to take. The first resolution which was adopted by the late Conference had in it a passage which I desire to quote. It said — '' That it is desirable to establish a system by which the several Governments represented shall be kept informed during the periods between the Conferences in regard to matters which have been or may be subjects for discussion, by means of a permanent secretarial staff, charged, under the direction of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, with the duty of obtaining information for the use of the Conference, of attending to its resolutions, and of conducting correspondence on matters relating to its affairs." ~.,<-. _ _.. • _. This proposal was submitted by myself on behalf of His Majesty's Government, and therefore what I have to do is to say how I propose to redeem the promise which I then gave. It will be remembered that there were other proposals before the Conference on this subject. There were resolutions which had been prepared by the Colonies of Australia and New Zealand and the Cape, and the propositions embodied in them were supported by the representatives of those Colonies at the Conference. They suggested the appointment of a Secretariat, independent of the Colonial Office by the Conference itself. To that arrangement His Majesty's Government took exception on the ground that it was entirely inconsistent with the Ministerial responsibility which exists, not only in this country, but also in each and every Colony which enjoys self-government, and we were supported in that view by several members of the Conference, and especially by the Prime Minister of Canada Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Sir Wilfrid Laurier speaks with so much authority and distinctness that I desire to give his opinion in his own words. Sir Wilfrid Laurier said— "I am quite satisfied upon the principle conceded, that what is done is to be done on direct responsibility. That is the only subject, as originally proposed, to which I demurred, because it seemed to be the creation of an independent body. The moment it is recognised here that it is to be under direct responsibility, lam satisfied. lam quite prepared to accept the new principle, but I would not like to commit myself immediately to the drafting of the resolution, which perhaps may be improved." ~_,._, , , t 1 Now my Lords, I cannot refer to any division-list—we fortunately did not take many formal divisions'at the Conference—but the fact remains that though the representatives of the Colonies to which I have referred supported their own propositions, the resolution which I have quoted was finallv adopted without a dissentient voice. I am obliged, however, to trouble the_ House with another quotation, because the concise language of the resolution itself might otherwise not be so clearly understood In the course of the discussion I endeavoured to remove, so far as 1 could, any ambiguity as to the intentions of His Majesty's Government. On the first day I defined our position as follows. I said — ~',,..,. . -i • .•_. • i j.i, "If you accept our proposition that we should with Ministerial responsibility provide the link which you desire, and which we think you reasonably desire, between Conference and Conference, you should allow us a free hand in other respects. . . The proposition which I put forward I put forward on my own responsibility as Secretary of State for the Colonies, but with the assent of my colleagues, and I hope therefore that the Conference will give it at least as favourable consideration as possible. ... We will endeavour, I think we shall succeed, to so separate the departments of this office that you will have in the office in the form which we shall present it to you a distinct division dealing with the affairs of the responsibly governed Colonies I will not say it will be exactly apart, because there is, and must be, at the head, at any rate a connecting link between the several parts of any office, but there will be one division which you will feel will be concerned with the business of all the self-governing Colonies, and not directly with that of the Crown Colonies." ~„_.-, , j t • a On the second day I found it necessary to add a further explanation, and 1 said— "W T hat we have in our minds to carry out, and hope to be able to carry out in the future, is that we should appoint a gentleman on our staff to be the secretary for the Conference, not for one Conference only, but to continue the business as a member of the staff of the office and in a division of the office, as I said before, but that being his specific duty, thereby focussing all the business in the way which I think the members of the Conference in their various Resolutions expressed the desire it should be. That is what we hope to do, and that is the reason we use the expression ' secretarial staff.' You quite understand, I think, that we can make that arrangement without interfering with the responsibility or organization of the office, but still in such a manner, I think, so far as it is capable of being done within the walls of the office, as to meet the wishes that the other members of the Conference have expressed. That is the meaning of the expression." ....... ~ •_. ■ . i u Upon that Sir Wilfrid Laurier remarked —"I do not care how it is expressed, so long as it is on Ministerial responsibility, that is the only thing I attach importance to." I think, therefore, my Lords, I have made it quite clear that the idea of an independent body was not entertained by the Conference, and in the second place that the idea of a scheme within the walls and under the responsibility of the Colonial Office was fully before the Conference and was entertained. That being so, the only scheme which I can be expected to lay before your Lordships this evening is one on those lines. I shall not detain the House by any description of the organization of the Colonial Office as it is now. It may suffice to say that the geographical divisions into which it was, I think, originally divided have become somewhat obscured by the gradual accretions of spheres of duty in many parts of the world, and it is not very easy now to define any very distinct principle on which it is organized. The work generally, however, is divided into four Departments under the four Assistant Under-Secretaries of State, above them standing the permanent Under-