THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, MAY 27, 1911. THE COLONICAL OFFICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14691, 27 May 1911, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, MAY 27, 1911. THE COLONICAL OFFICE.

Whatever may be the tangible results finally achieved by the Imperial Conference of 1911 there would at least seem to be every prospect that amongst them will be found an entirely new method of dealing with affairs relating to the Colonies, in London; and that the present Colonial Office will, as far as its control over the business of the self-governing Dominions is concerned, cease to exist. Sir Joseph Ward's resolutions dealing with this subject are even now being discussed, and have been accorded a great amount of sympathy from the press and eminent people in all walks of life; and he only expresses a conviction already held, both at Home and oversea, when he advocates the complete separation of the affairs of the Dominions from those of the Crown Colonics and Protectorates. The great growth recorded by the self-governing Dependencies in recent years, and the aptitude which the| have displayed in the successful management of their affairs, has naturally tended to enhance the importance of their representatives in London; and, if the new proposals are carried in their entirety, the position and prestige of the High Commissioners will be advanced to something akin to that held by Ambassadors, and, for the first time since the granting of autonomy, they will become the sole mouthpieces and accredited intermediaries through which all business arising between the Mother Country and her Oversea Dominions will be effected. The alteration of the title of the Secretary for the Colonies to that of Secretary for Imperial Affairs will be only one of the outward signs of the change which is taking place, and yet such change is one of great moment, and marks an epoch in Colonial evolution; for it practically means the extinction of the Colonial Office as such, and the creation of an entirely new bureaucracy to deal with an Empire growth which has been little short of marvellous. The Colonial Office in point of fact has never had a very glorious existence. Created in a hurry, and as a temporary expedient at the time of the Crimean War, to relieve the War Secretary (who, for some quito unaccountable reason, had for half a century had charge of the Colonies), it has been unfortunate in earning u a reputation for red-tapeism which

will cause its supercession to be unlamented by anybody; and the only time when, for a brief period, it seemed as if it might emerge into usefulness and importance was during the energetic administration of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, since whose time it has lapsed back into its original obscurity.

With the disappearance of the Colonial Office will probably vanish a great number of the causes of friction which in the past have sometimes threatened the permanence of the good relations between England and her outer Empire ; for they were in a large measure , due to the confusion of administration which arose from the mixing of the affairs of the self-governing and the Crown possessions. It is indeed obvious that any set of officials, however well meaning, who have been trained in the routine applicable from time immemorial to the direction of communities governed from Downingstrect, are unsuited to any proper appreciation of the sentiments or the aspirations of free peoples who, in everything but name, are actually independent Sovereign States. There probably never was a time in the whole course of Colonial history when the loyalty and adherence of the Dominions was as strong as it is to-day, as there never was a time when greater dangers confronted the Empire as a whole; and if the Imperial Conference of this, the Coronation year, does nothing more than erect an efficient Secretariat for the management of Colonial interests, and succeed in displacing, as far as the greater Dominions are concerned, the Colonial Office by an Imperial Department, it will not only have justified its existence, but will have laid the foundations of a work for which all the Conferences to ue held in the years to come will have reason to be doubly grateful.