WAS IT A FAILURE?

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 27, 1 August 1911, Page 3

WAS IT A FAILURE?

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE RESULTS. OPINIONS WITHIN AND WITHOUT. (From Our Own Correspoirdenti) LONDON 23rd June. What people say does hot usually count for a. great deal, especially when,, as at present, they like to feay polite things. With significant head-wagging certain weighty people have been cropping hints throughout the sittings of the Imperial Conference > thafc the debates nave l)een fruitless, t'ne wholo Conference void of result, Now it is o-tfer. The early disappointments, are- more or less forgotten, and the opinions seem to coincide in a peculiar manner that after all the Conference has done good. Let tas take a few of the summings up. LORD CURZON. The first important utterance from outside the press was that of Lord Curzon at the press^ dinner on Saturday evening. Referring to the fears that an air of unreality overhung the proceedings of the Conference, he said he had sat next to Sir Joseph Ward that afternoori j -"one of the leading participators, one who put forward with intrepid ardour and with great ability more than one proposition which had not met with the favour Of his colleagues," and ho was gl&d to hear Sir Joseph say that in his opinion the Conference marked a great and substantial progress in the Imperial idea. Lord CurfcOn named a kw of the new conditions in. Imperial relations. Did they mean to tell him that this did not mean a great advance? It was an enormous advance. At any rate they had arrived at something very like an Imperial Government or Cabinet of Imperial statesmen sitting in temporary session, and Conducting themselves with dignity, mutual sympathy, and forbearance, and with a successful attempt to reconcile the spirit of autonomy and of nationalism with a broader conception of Imperial Unity. ' MR. BALFOUR. Speaking the sa-me day, Mr. Balfour sketched the ideal Empire which had beeii his dream of the future. "I acknowledge thafc the Sort of ideal I have ventured to sketch," he continued, "can only be realised slowly aVid with difficulty^ Each on© of these great communities consists of hard-working men immersed in. their own. affairs, not overendowed with imagination, easily looking at the immediate needs rather than at the distant goal. And yet, in spite of all these difficulties, I believe that that goal will be reached." That was rather more hon-cofiimittal. LORD ROSEBERY. Two days later the oracle of Midlothian—he is by the way, to retain his old title of Lord Rosebery — made his fine speech at the Westminster Hall. He also sketched a. vision of the future Empire. "Things move fast in these days," he remarked, "and any dreamer may wake up in the .morning to l\r\i\ his dream accomplished. I believe that the cause is marching with giant stride.*, and thafc some day We shall wake up and find ourselves a federated Empire. "' THE DELEGATES THEMSELVES. Then came the close of the Conference itself, and its opportunity for a, frank review on the part of the members. Needless to say, they all their belief that the Conference ."id done good. Sir Joseph Ward put it thus:— "lf the Conference, had done no more work than the setting tip of the Imperial Commission to^ traverse the Empire, it would I have discharged a _ great Empire work, and have made the Conference memorable^ He could say r without fea-r of cott1 tradiction, that the representatives of fch& Dominions would return to their countries impressed with a sincere conviction that the Conference which had , just ( closed had done more th&n a.ll the previous Conferences put together." THE SPECTATOR. I What the"TSpecta.tor, ftom its detached position, says of Imperial politics, is usually fairly sounds— "ln our opinion the Imperial Conference has been a very great success, and has proved how unwise a« well as mistaken is the policy of those fussy and pessimistic person's who, in efffrct, declare that unices something strong and violent ie done for the Empire, atld done at once, it will crumble, to pieces.'' SIR JOHN FINDLAVS OPINION. "I think it is generally admitted,"wemarked Sir John Findlay, ih' reply to a question, " that the Conference has produced more substantial practical results tha>n any previous one. True, it v did not embark on any wide scheme of Imperial federation, bub there runs through the whole of the deliberations a strong tendency to treat the Empire as one in a. sense in which it lias never been treated before. With the utmost frankness and absolute openness, the Home Government disclosed the whole of the foreign policy of Great Britain and the reasons for ft. Coming as it did early in tlie sittings, this mark of confidence provoked a reciprocal serme of trust and good' feeling which marked the proceedings, to the end. The undertaking of the Imperial Government with regard to previous discussion of foreign treaties which rrtay affect the Empire, is a substantial acknowledgment of Imperial partnership. Then there was the readines* with which British Minietere undertook to give, as far as possible, Imperial operation to award© and judgments of oversea, courts and arbitration boatds." > Sir John considers that the Commission which the Conference decided upon is a. great _ step towards' the Imperial Council which was aimed at in the New Zealand resolutions. The Prime Ministw of Great Britain hafe given an understanding thafc two of the very best men England tun furnish will be appointed, and each of the self-governing Dominions will ha>6 one. The Commission will b» peripatetic, and its recommend&tioitt, if of an urgent nature, may be referred to, subsidiary conferences.