THE SECRET COUNCIL.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIX, Issue 52, 11 February 1913, Page 7

THE SECRET COUNCIL.

, Hon. J. Allen (New Zealand Defence Minister), we read in recent cables, attended a meeting of the Committee oi Imperial Defence, and an outline of this committee's work will be of interest.

We English do our great deeds in our own peciftiar fashion. We acquired the Over-seas Empire, according to a famous historian, in a fit of absence of mind. We seem likely to build up an Imperial Constitution in the same manner (writes Sidney Low in the 'Daily Mail').

,We have been talking of Imperial Federation and Imperial Councils for half a century. It must be more than 40 years since the Imperial Federation League was founded, and half a dozen other leagues and societies with similar objects have been established since. They have had an imposing membersh p; the most distinguished and resuonsible persons have appeared at their public meetings; they have issued influential manifestoes and weighty exhortations ; they have levied subscriptions and appealed, not always in vain, for funds. And with all this public activity—very commendable in itself, hardly a step forward has been made through these agencies. Meanwhile one or two statesmen and high officials consult together quietly in Whitehall; some unnoticeable Orders- and .Memoranda are printed, where nobody will ever see them, in the 'London Gazette'; instructkiiis are given to a few secretaries and superior clerks in certain Government Departments; and behold, the thing is done! Mr Borden's freat speech the' other day is, I daresay, the first intimation to many thousands of Englishmen, at home and in the Dominions, of the existence of that great Empire Council of, W ar and Foreign Policy which is officially known as the Committe of Imperial Defence. Mr Balfour's Idea.

Parliament, the electorate, the public, the press had nothing to do with it; no Bill was laid before the House of Commons to giye it sanction. It is "unknown to the Constitution," like the Prime M'tr.ster, like the Cabinet, like the other organs and authorities that make the Constitution a reality. It was born of a side-wind, a few Strokes of the pen, the administrative decrees of statesmen who did not themselves perha»s fullv understand all that their action involved. Four great Ministers, in the intervals ol many other public responsibilities, found time to institute and develop it, Lord Salisbury, Mr Balfour, Mr Asquith. and now Mr Borden. It, was Lord Salisbury who laid the foundation when he brought together the representatives of the Admiralty end the War Office in a small committee for the purpose of studying great strategical questions and reporting upon them to the Prime Minister. That was the beg lining, this unobtrusive departmental (ommittee.

,\1 r Balfour, when lie became Prime Minister, took this shadowy conclave in hand and breathed life into it. He called it by its present name ami- he gave it a secretariat. Hx> intended it to be a permanent advisory committee on defence questions, whose counsel should be available for the guidance of the Cabinet, more- particularly the Prune Minister. It was a "committee of the Cabinet," but one constituted to advise and inform the Cabinet, and) especially its chief. The Prime Minister, under Mr Balfour's original scheme, was not only the president of the Committee, he was its only permanent member. He assembled it when ho thought fit, and he could summon to it anybody he pleased. But very soon it was seen that there were certain, high officers of State who could not be left out of any meeting. Mr Balfour appointed two Ministers as permanent members; and then there were others whose rights to he present was recognised. so that it was accepted that the Foreign Secretary, tl»e Secretary for War, the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Colonial Secretary, and the Secretary for India must be ex officio members of the Committee of Defence. Mr Asquith.

When Mr Balfour left it Mr Asquith took the Committee in hand. He appointed .sub-committees to report upon -uestion of strategic and military and nava! policy, with authority to call witnesses before them. In this lie was following the recommendations of Lord Esher, who, working unobtrusively behind the scenes and without public acknowledgement, has done as much as anybody to five the system its present scope and structure. Mr Asquith's sub-corn nutces were supposed to accumulate fr>d analyse a mass of information itliich could be in due course submitted +c the full Board. Then the Prime Minister established a Standing Sub-committee, with the Secretary for War and the First Lord of the"Admiralty as alternative chairmen, and including representatives of the Admiralty, tlie War Office, the Foreign Office, tne Board of Trade and other great public Departments. Its object is to co-ordinate for defensive purposes the naval, military and civil forces'of the Crown, and to make suitable recommendations to the Cabinet. , Both the Committee and the Subcommittee meet in private, and no report M their proceedings is published. But Lord Esher has stated that they have dealt with, among other problems, that of aerial navigation, food supply and transport in time of war,

wireless telegraphy, the conveyance of reinforcements overseas during hostilities, and other grave questions; and probably some of greater grdvity still, which Lord Esher does not think it wise to enumerate, Its functions were, and still nominally are, purely advisory. It has no executive authority. It has been, in fact, the consultative bureau and intelligence department of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet upon war preparation and external policy, under tli'eir responsibility to the Parliament and the electorate of the United Kingdom.

Mr Borden's Proposal. But this year we have witnessed a areat extension. By another stroke of the peri the Committee membership has become Imperial as well as National, it has gone far to justify the adjective in its title. During their visit to London last summer the Canadian Ministers were summoned to take Dart in the deliberations, and confidential information was submitted to them. Thus it has become, for this occasion at least, an advisory board not only of one British Cabinet but of two, and probably more; for it is understood that the information given to the Dominion Ministers has also been De-parted-to the Governments of other Dominions. fJow~ Mr Borden proposes a further step. In his speech at Ottawa on December 5 he pointed out that the Committee "is necessarily and constancy obliged to consider foreign policy lor the obvious reason that defence,' and especially naval defence, is i. separably connected with such considerstn.is.'' He suggests, therefore, that :i Canadian Minister should be regul-Kly summoned to every meeting of 'die Defence Committee, and' for that purpose would be resident in London during the whole, or a part of every year. No doubt the suggestion will be acted upon; and, of course, if there is a regular Canadian representative on the Committee, similar representation will be provided for Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Thus the Committee is evolving rapidly towards a true Council of Empire, The basis of Imperial union, says Mr Borden, is to ho found in permanent co-operation for defence; and such a basis "must afford the Over-sea Dominions an adequate voice in the moulding and control of foreign policv." There are, as he admits many difficulties to be surmounted before the problem can be solved. But the solution seems rnqst likely to come through this Committee of Imperial Defence, which lias grown with startling rapidity from its modest bureaucratic beginnings; so that already it has almost become the supreme Advisory Board, on naval and militarv and foreign policy, for all the Cabinets a#d Parliaments of the Empire.