IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 112, 8 November 1930, Page 9

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

„ <t> WHY NOT PERMANENT BODY? DOMINION MINISTERS IN LONDON United Press Association —By Electric Tele-graph—Copyright. (Received Blh November, 11 a.m.) LONDON, 7th November. The newspapers give prominence to a novel suggestion that the Imperial Conference should be converted into a permanent body sitting in London and holding two sessions annually to watch over the destinies of the Empire. The idea is developed in a book, "New Imperial Ideas," by Robert Stokes, to which Lord Lloyd contributes an introduction; Lord Lloyd says that the Dominions would be represented at the permanent conference by responsible Ministers with full powers. Representation upon the Conference would be held out as the object of attainment to all the larger dependencies and mandated territories, including Egypt and Irak.

SIR JOSEPH WARD

ORIGINATOR OF IDEA NEARLY TWENTY YEARS AGO The proposal for the establishment of an Imperial Council "was first mooted at the Imperial Conference of 1911, the scheme originating with the late Eight Hon. Sir Joseph Ward, who was then Prime Minister of New Zealand. Sir Joseph's proposal did not find a great deal of support at the Conference table, and rather than force a division Sir Joseph withdrew his resolution. " The resolution proposed by Sir Joseph Ward was as follows: That the Empire has now reached a stage of Imperial development which renders it expedient that there should be an Imperial Council of State with representatives from all the self-governing parts of the Empire, in theory and in fact advisory to the Imperial Government on all questions affecting the interests of His Majesty's Dominions oversea. In submitting the resolution, Sir Joseph said that he felt it was recognised by every representative at the Conference that there was a need for better organisation. It could not be denied that in some respects there was a trend particularly in the settlement of some .of their countries and in the extraction of people from the Old Country which had tended to weaken the Old Land, and while giving strength to the newer land so far as numbers were concerned, to do nothing to increase the Imperial unity. The growth of the-oversea Dominions was in some respects so remarkable that it called for the very greatest consideration on the. part of the representative men, both from those countries and in the older country, in order to pvevent the difficulties arising in the years to come which would then be almost impossible of settlement, but which if taken early in their development, might be prevented from arising. Sir Joseph went on to refer to the growth of population in the Dominions, and referred to the experience of the United' States of America, which, he said, only fifty years previously had been less than half its 1911 population. In 1848, tho American population was almost wholly AngloAmerican, but in 1911 over 50 per cent, ■was of foreign birth or extraction. He referred to that to prove that questions of great racial interest must arise in the courso of the next twenty-five years in connection with the development of the oversea Dominions. He felt that the statesmen would have to deal with that problem in the years to come as assuredly as they wore sitting around the Conference table. FORTY MILLIONS IN NEW ZEALAND. Sir Joseph went on to say that he believed Australia was capable of holding one hundred millions of people, and he thought the same might be said of South Africa and Canada. New Zealand, he felt, was capable of carrying forty millions of people with comparative ease and with comparative comfort. In his opinion, unless tho questions of emigration and immigration were treated imperially and the most anxious care taken tq keep their people within their own Empire, they would, to some extent, dissipate their national strength in the future. He believed that what was required to prevent that was a well-devised scheme of emigration and immigration, and that it was necessary for all portions of the Empire to have some properly constituted authority with sufficient powers to enable them to carry oh a work of that kind. In his opinion, the development of an Imperial emigration system could only be successfully carried out if there was, as a pre-essential, an Imperial federal scheme under the administration of an Imperial Council. He recognised the enormous difficulties that were in the way, but ho might say there were at that time hearts thTobbing all over tho Empire for closer

attachment to the Mother Land. He knew he could speak for his own country, and say that that was the case there, and that all New Zealanders recognised that the great silken thread which bound them all together .was based on sentiment, but in his opinion that was not sufficient. FOR SELF-PEESERVATION. Sir Joseph Ward expressed tho opinion that they have an impartial and effective organisation created- which would allow all portions of the British Empire- to review what was necessary for the self-preservation of themselves and the protection of all portions of it on sea as well as on land. That could only be brought about by somo organisation created with the goodwill, not of the representatives at the Conference alone, but finally of tho people in tho respective countries concerned. Sir Joseph said that he wanted to emphasise the fact that underlying tho proposals he submitted he placed tho defence of the Empire as of the first consequence to all parts of it. Ee-f erring to the establishment of an Imperial Council, Sir Joseph suggested that the i principles of the scheme should be: — 1. That Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and Newfound-land-elect to an Imperial House of Representatives for Naval Defence one representative for each 200,000 of their respective populations. 2. That the mode of electing the representatives be left in each case to the determination of each overseas Dominion. 3. That the United Kingdom elect representatives on tho same basis —one for every 200,000 of population. 4. That tho term for which they arc elected be five years. 5. That the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Now Zealand, and Newfoundland each elect two representatives to be members of an Imperial Council of Defence, thus providing a council of twelve. It was not proposed that tho Parliament for the first ten years after the first election should have power of taxation, but the amount payable by each of tho oversea Dominions represented as its proportion of tho revenue required for the purposes of the organisation should be deemed to be a debt_ due by each Dominion and should be raised and paid by that Dominion to the Exchequer of the Imperial Parliament of Defence. VIEWS OF DELEGATES. The opinion was expressed by Sir Wilfred Laurier, Prime Minister of Canada, that the proposal outlined by Sir Joseph Ward seemed to be absolutely impracticable. The Primo Minister of Australia (the Hon. A. Fisher) agreed that the scheme was not a practical one at the present moment, although he congratulated Sir Joseph on his courage on bringing it forward. Ho could not support the proposition. Tho Eight Hon. L. Botha, Prime Minister of the- Union of South Africa, said he highly appreciated the spirit in which Sir Joseph had brought forward his proposal, but ho regretted ho was unable to agree with him. He felt that the objections against such a scheme were far weightier than any benefits that might arise from it. Tho Prime Minister of Newfoundland (the Hon Sir E. P. Morris) said he wns in entire sympathy with the underlying motive or suggestion running through Sir Joseph's remarks, but he was quite convinced that tho proposal would not in any way effect what lie desired. The Prime Minister of Great Britain (the Eight Hon. H. H. Asquith) congratulated Sir Joseph on the skill and ability with which he had presented the case, but he thought they had to agree that the- proposal was not a practical one, and even if it were so the fact that it did not receive the unanimous consent of all the representatives of the Dominions, but was repudiated by them all except Sir Joseph Ward himself, was, for the purposes of the Conference, a fatal and, indeed, an insuperable objection to its adoption. Sir Joseph Ward, said that in view of the expressions of opinions of the members of the Conference against the resolution he would ask that the resolution, having been discussed, should be withdrawn. This was agreed to.