A.—6a

88

Procedure for dealing with Mr. Bruce's Proposals. I do not want at this moment —and I am sure you would not expect me —to follow all the suggestions or to consider all the; questions which Mr. Bruce raiseel this morning. All of them are essentially germane; to the subject. All of them are subjects which we ought to discuss here, and I would, at this moment, only say this : I think we have felt that a Royal Commission woulel not really be the best body to debate this problem. After all, lam not sure whether Mr. Bruce meant precisely what we understand by a Royal Commission in what he said. He; useel it rather as a term of art or description I thought, unless I misunderstood him. What he said was in effect, "We; want to get some body which can approach these, questions impartially, which can carry conviction." Well, if an Imperial Economic Conference cannot approach these questions impartially, cannot carry conviction when it makes its findings and recommendations, 1 do not, believe; there is any body in the; whole. Empire which can. Therefore 1 venture to suggest that it is this body,, sitting round this table, which should have the; courage; to take these, questions one by one and thresh them out. Mr. Bruce.: That I would, accept quite willingly. Ido not know whether this Conference, sitting to the extent that it does, woulel be; able to get through the work very rapidly or efficiently. It might conceivably be more suitable for only part of tho Conference to do it, but provided the thing were investigated at once I woulel raise no objeotion as to what particular body examined these proposals in the first place;. Mr. Massey: I would just like; to say that I. am very glad the proposal to appoint a I'oyal Commission is not being pressed. My reason feir it is this, and I. cannot, help thinking what was said on one, occasion by a statesman who does not belong to the British Empire: that a Royal Commission was a very convenient way of burying a, very difficult subject, .1 would not suggest, that tin- British Government would elei anything of that sort, but I know it has been done, and done pretty frequently, anel it has been done, overseas. We do not want it to happen in connection with an important subject like this, in which we arc all concerned. Examination of Proposals by Committee. Mr. Bruce : I woulel like to say a word with regard to that, because I cordially agree with Mr. Massey that a Royal Commission is a well-known and convenient method of ge-tting rid of a number of subjects ; 1 venture to suggest that the Royal Commission which does that is the Royal Commission appointed when yeiu an- completely defeated yourself and have; no sort of suggestion to put forward. 1 felt that I was not on quite such elangerous ground as it might appear in suggesting a Royal Commission or any other body to investigate it. When one has quite definitely put forward proposals it is not intended to ask a Royal Commission to solve things you cannot make any attempt at yourself, it is really intended to ask them to examine certain proposals that you have put up ; something smaller than this whole Conference is really all I am pressing for as being a more convenient way of going into the matter than to have tho whole Conference handle it as one of its ordinary subjects. The Chairman : Woulel it be possible to meet the double; point in this way : that we shoulel take, the subjects that you have raised and see at what date any part of them could be conveniently referred to an expert Committee ? Mr. Bruce : An expert Committee ? The Chairman : Yes ; I woulel say an expert Committee because you have raised—l do not want to discuss it now on its merits —the epiestion of a large form of control of a producing and distributing and price-controlling agency. We;]], it might very well be; convenient to refer certain aspects of a question like that to a small Committee who could go into the practical administrative difficulties and report to us. Mr. Massey : A Committee of this Conference ? The Chairman : A Committee eif this Conference. Mr. Amery: That would not preclude, so to speak, the discussion by the whole Conference in committee of the main epiestion and its details. The Chairman : No. Indeed, it would arise out of the; discussion in committee. Mr. Bruce : But I would suggest, in the first place, that it be handled by senile small body which can make a report. lam epiite certain that any discussion which takes place here is going to be much more; useful if we have; something definite and concrete, to work upon than if we take the whole question and range over it. I think it woulel take; a, great deal more time to deal with it here than if it were referreei to a Committee. Scope of Suggested Committee. The Chairman : Possibly, Mr. Bruce, you woulel consider exactly what you suggest should be referred to this Committee ? You made a series of suggestions this morning. One of them which you put forward was a question of tariffs. That obviously is a much simpler matter than a complex question of control. It is a matter which we, I should think, could discuss in this Conference, without referring to a Committee. Then you adumbrated certain alternative methods of control. Those, possibly, could conveniently go to a Committee rather to thresh out administrative details than the broad question of polieiy as to whether such a control was at all possible. Mr. Bruce: Save for this fact: that even if you come to a preference you have' to carefully consider the effect of it, and put a number of facts forward as to what it would actually mean vis-a-vis the; consumer, who, I have; tried to indicate, very clearly, is the; person who must be very much considered. I shemld be; inclined to think that this Conference would not be in any way pledged to any conclusion this Committee arrived at ; it would, be a matter for the Conference to consider.