IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 27, 31 July 1924, Page 7

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

STATEMENT BY COLONIAL SECRETARY

OBJECT LESSON FOE THE NATIONS.

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPTRIQHT.)

(AtJSTRAMAN-Jißtt" ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, 29th July.

Mr. J. H. Thomas announced in the House of Commons that an Imperial Conference would be held in October, after a speech in which Lieutenant-Col-onel Amery accused the Government Departments of England of falling back to the old traditional attitude, and not realising that a now chapter in British constitutionalism had been opened during the war. Mr. Thomas said: "We promised the Dominions that their representation at the present Allied Conference was not a precedent, being desirous to make it plain to foreign Powers that such a system of representation of tho Dominions was unsatisfactory and must be altered. That is-why. we are inviting the Dominions to. the Conference in October.

I cannot lay the papers on tho table at the moment, as the replies have not been received, but there is every indication that the Conference will be welcomed, and the Government want it to tako place in order to explore the whole situation. We want to avoid the difficulties we have had to deal with so far. It is imperative that the interests of the Dominions should be recognised and looked after.

"We also want outsiders, to understand that any domestic differences are not going to weaken us, because we are going to remedy them. "Earlier in the debate Lieutenant-Col-onol Amery said that at the Paris Conference tho status of the/Dominions was recognised not only among ourselves but by the outside world, as equal to that of other independent nations. A real solution could best be found in making the,principle of the British Empire delegation continuous by giving the Dominions a continuous say in foreign policy. After all, we could not have different degrees of citizenship within the Empire."

RIGHTS OF THE DOMINIONS

Mr. Lloyd Georgo said: "I am glad this subject has been raised, because it was of vital importance to the unit-, strength, and continued existence of tt'e Empire. The war has made a. greatdifference. The sacrifices the Dominions made from 1914 to 1918' were greater than any made by Britain in any war siuce the Napoleonic. The Dominions put a million men in the field, and those men probably Wero the decisive factor in what happened. It is impossible, not to comply with the Dominions' demand that henceforward they shall be consulted in foreign policy which commits them to such an enormous sacrifice. It has been difficult to get the Departments to understand the full meaning of that change. Tho matter is most important when one considers the difficulties our well-wishers in the Dominions have in always carrying the whole of their public opinion along with them on Imperial' issues. We should be careful not to give the slightest offence. The difficulty is distance. Until that lias been scientifically shortened the difficulty will remain."

The Colonial vote was carried,