Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JULY 4, 1911. THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 4 July 1911, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JULY 4, 1911. THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

ITS INFLUENCE AND ITS RESULTS. THE last of the functions in connection with the Coronation of King George are now 'being held in Great Britain, and the overseas envoys probably will be glad enough to get home again and settle down once mora to business, Of course, from the standpoint- of the Dominions, the Imperial Conference lias been the most important event, except the -Coronation- itself, and though there 'has .been a paucity of actual resolutions carried, no previous Conference has borne sucli important lesults. Apart- from all other matters, the mere fact that the Imperial Government has taken the overseas Governments into its utmost confidence with regard to. defence is in itself an act calculated to have far-rcaching consequences. The Conference has also been momentous in other respects, though it has given shrift to those schemes or dreams of Imperial Federation which earlier conferences discussed as elaborately and seriously as though they were really practicable. Tne marked tone taken- in this respect is due to what termed the vicissitudes of party government, which haVe given prominence to aspects of Empire questions other than those which were ' so outstandingly, although unsuceessful- ! lv, put forward at previous .gatherings. Mr. Asquith's proposition at the opening of the conference that, party prepossessions should be left "outside the door"

expressed I lie I(Ii-a Unit- mwv partisanship should not bo allow-cd to cloud or influence any representative's judgment upe.n hiih Empire questions.

But so long as there .is party government throughout the Empire, in the selfgoverning dominions, it is difficult to see

how any but party leaders can represent tlie- various countries at an Imperial Conference. Hence, in iue'vitableness of government by principle and according to healthy differences ujdoii principle we find an apparently insuperable hindrance to Imperial preference and federation. Even the Conference just closed owed its special tendencies and results, not to nonparty debate, but actually to the circumstance that an Imperial Government essentially composed of party men led and directed such tendencies and results. In England the Liberals oppose preferential trade based on a protective tarift, believing that freetrade is nationally the best policy. Out of a similar regard for freedom they object to any formal political Empire federation on the ground that it- would be galling; to the self-go-verning peoples of the various countries. Accordingly, the Imperial Conference carried' neither preference nor federation. On the other hand, if the Conservatives had been in office they might have used every effort at the Conference to push British preference and Empire Federation to acceptance. Commenting on this aspect of party really dominating tlie Conference, however veiled such domination might have been, the Sydney "Daily Telegraph" says:—"lf preference had been carried that would have been Great Britain's affair; but is it to be supposed that when the Liberals came into power on their inescapable policy of freetrade the Motherland would be content to put up with the continuance of protection after voting that it must go? In the other event any oversea representative's vote in favour of closer political union would only express the opinion oi the party of the moment, which actually might not command a, majority in the country at the time ii its Ministerial life could be put to a popular test." As a matter of fact, an Empire so widely divergent as the British could not carry oil for long a political union with its action based on a majority vote at periodical gatherings—the strain would be too great. Hence, in rejecting the Empire Council scheme the Conference virtually expressed its disapproval of a project which, however well intentioned, might have been dangerous to Imperial unity.

But, while there are many things the Conference has left undone, perhaps wisely, there are others, memorable and momentous, that it has 'accomplished. Conspicuous among the latter is the achievement of closer understanding between the Motherland and the dominions. In that direction it has been more signally successful than any of its predecessors, owing largely, perhaps, to the 'influence towards unity that is prevalent just now. Never before has a, conference made such practical progress from appreciation of interests to l their assimilation as a matter of Empire policy. The oversea delegates have been taken into the Imperial confidence with frankness, and the effect on the visiting delegates has been so impressive that it must help forward cohesive Empire administration. Tile latter must be practical if anything, and so alone will it command sympathetic co-operation based on mutual understanding.