IMPERIAL CONFERENCES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 114, 15 May 1924, Page 5

IMPERIAL CONFERENCES.

ATTITUDE OF GOVERNMENT.

MR. J. K. THOMAS EXPLAINS.

LONDON, May 14

Speaking at a dinner given to Mr. E. G. Theodore, Premier of Queensland, at the Hotel Cecil, Mr. J. H. Thomas, Secretary of the Colonies, made an important statement in reference to Imperial Conferences. He said: "I know it is a delicate subject, but I believe it is better to speak of things which ought to be discussed than of merely pleasant things.

"I recognise that there are many people in Britain and in the Dominions who are anxious and apprehensive as to the outcome of the action of the British Government jn rejecting, perhaps ruthlessly, the recommendations which ■tt'ero solemnly arrived at by the last Imperial Conference. But it is merely blind party politics to assume that there is only one side to such questions. There are two, and I want to face them."

Continuing, Mr. Thomas said: "1 believe it -was a mistake to bring the Dominion Prime Ministers to deliberato and reach conclusions with the British Government when there was a danger of these conclusions being repudiated either here or in their own Dominions. iThie happened in connection with the last Imperial Conference through the change of Government in Britain. TREAT Al* ALIKE. "Steps should be taken to prevent the recurrence of euch a thing in future. I have no watertight solution to offer, but I think that party feeling could be avoided if, instead of only Prime Ministers attending the conferences, the leaders of the recognised official Oppositions of Britain and the Dominions also attended. This would result in united instead of party decisions being reached. Questions of Imperial concern and of Empire development should be lifted out of the realm of party politics. "That is the spirit in which I am seeking to administer the Colonial Office," said Mr. Thomas. He added that he rejoiced in the settlement of disputes between Queensland and London financial circles. He confessed he was most apprehensive about the matter when Mr. Theodore arrived in London, because he believed he would fail to reach a settlement. The decision of any Dominion to seek outside the Empire financial assistance which was available within the Empire would have been a blow from which it would have been most difficult for the Empire to recover.—(A. and N.Z.