THE PREMIERS' CONFERENCE. King Dick's Proposals.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 92, 5 April 1902, Page 8

THE PREMIERS' CONFERENCE. King Dick's Proposals.

IN the despatch of Continents to South Atnca, and in giving a patriotic lead to the other colonies on Imperial questions since the Boer war began, Mr. Seddon has done far more than any other man to weld fc he British Empire into the closest Cohesion. He does not mean to rest On his oars. He sees clearly enough that, once the war is over, the ardent Spirit which now brings the scattered members of the one gieat family into such unity of purpose and feeling may cool oft', Jea\mg them not much nearer to actual federation than they weie before. Is there any means of preventing such a lapse into mdiflerentism ? « * * Mr. Seddon thinks there is. He goes Home with two trump cards up his slee\e, and he means to score with either, or, better still, both of them, at the Premiers' Conference. The first is to lay the basis for a preferential tariff within the Empire for the mutual advantage of its various members. There is no originality about it. It is familiar fo the Germans under the name of Zollverein, meaning an agreement or union among States for commercial purposes. Canada has been the first to take it up, and to give the Mother Country the advantages accruing from a preferential tariff. If King Dick can persuade the other colonies to follow suit, and the United Kingdom to reciprocate, then the fusion of the Empire into a homogeneous mass starts to operate. + * * No foreign nation can utter a word of protest, for it is practically their own nolicy. It binds together e\ery component part of the Empire in the ties of common inteiest. The Empire becomes self-contained, and its solidarity stands beyond the region of dispute. That is one of Mr. Seddon's ideas. He has others, of which the chief is a triennial conference of British and Colonial Premiers to discuss Imperial questions. It is but a stepping stone to the grander project of complete Imperial Federation, with adequate representation for the congenes of States in a National Parliament or Senate. It must come sooner or later. There is danger in forcing it too hastily into the arena of politics. It is only in the nebulous state at present. Time and patience are needed to crystallise it into a workable plan. A conference of Premiers meeting at London at stated and regular periods to confer on national concerns is a practical means to that end. It would amount to a definite recognition by the Mother Country of the right of the Colonies to be consulted before any Imperial policy was determined upon which might affect their interests. * * * And, once that principle \\ as admitted even in hmine, it would gradually, but surely, be driven home to its logical conclusion. Inotherwords, if Imperial burdens are to be shared the mind of the Empire on all national questions must be ascertained in the modes adopted by all free self-governing communities. That is the aim of Imperial federation, and that is the goal towards which so keen an Imperialist as Richard John Seddon is picking his way. May success attend him !