King Country Chronicle Thursday, January 8, 1925. THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XX, Issue 2064, 8 January 1925, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Thursday, January 8, 1925. THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

The Dominions’ disinclination to attend the proposed Imperial Conference rm vho Geneva Protocol and other matters of common interest to the Empire must be regarded as exceedingly regrettable. In London it is said that while, officially, the distaste for the conference is based on the difficulty of Prime Ministers leaving the Dominions, it is not concealed in some quarters that a stronger reason for not favouring Aie conference is the feeling that the pacts required by ilie acceptance of the Geneva arms protocol, involving possibly war commitments, will be regarded ns repugnant to the spirit and letter of the Dominions’ constitutions. The latter reasu».i seems less reasonable than, the firsA ‘The question at present at issue is not the Geneva pad but whether the conference shall or shall nuft be held. If x'jie Dominion statesmen do not like the pact they can say so at the conference table, at t*ie proper place and time. Tho Protocol is of great importance and to say, in effect, “we won’t talk” is unwise as well as churlish. If this is douo it can only have an unfortunate effect in Britain and will provide a most unfavourable contrast to the British Government’s recent) generous attitude to the Dominions. In New Zealand, at least, no ono wants to feel ijhat. wo are willing to take all tho Mother Country can offer and give nothing in return. The objection that the Premiers cannot leave their own cofimtiries is a more legitimate one. Apalrt from >dtlier considerations, a Premier who does not enjoy the political security of Mr Massey, may not always find it expedient to take his hand from the helm and go to the other side of the earth for several mouths, Again, to many electors, unfortunately, the small things near at hand obscure the importance of the great issues to ho settled in Europe, and they are prone to regard the Premier's presence at home as more necessary.

But if the present scheme is not satisfactory that is all the greater reason why this conference should have been held so that a- better one could be devised. Australia has just appointed a liaison officer in London to keep in constant touch with the Colonial and Foreign Offices and the federal Government. This is a step in the right direction, but more still will have to be done if the means of communication between the capital and outputs of dhe Empire are* to become really adequate, ilow inadequate they are probably few people realise. An English writer said the other day: “It is astonishingly true that there i’.s no Government machinery charged with the duty of collecting and providing information regarding the Empire. Its trade requirements, its piobjlems, its climate, and its prospects are all terra incognita to the average business man desirous of doing business with another part of the Empire, or to the average citizen desirous of settling therein. Statesmen charged with tlio heavy dut|y of controlling the Empire have not the resources of information available which they should possess when matters of Empire policy are under discussion. There is an equivalent ignorance in the Dominions regarding the Motherland’s requiieuients, prospects, and opportunities. Dominion statesmen came to the last Imperial Conference prepared to go far in the direction of co-ordinated government, but they departed with the feeling that they had talked to men who had nob the smallest conception of what the Empire was or could be made.”

Now, however, the boot is on tlio other foot—the Motherland wants information and consultation with the Dominions which they will not give. The same writer contended very justly that Empire conferences to-day are too brief. Measures of the greatest importance and with the widest range are debated for a few days—sometimes for a few hours. Such a mode of doing

business .is absurd. But the Dominions cannot, or will not, see tjhls and, while refusing to be committed to any line of action by the British Government, at tho same time decline td assist it to arrive at a decision upon the many weighty matters awaiting settlement in Europe.