The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1924. IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 12021, 26 December 1924, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1924. IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

Mr Stanley 'Bruce lias declared that there is no need for any Conference of Imperial Prime Ministers. It is the opinion of the Prime Minister of the Australian Commonwealth. We may conclude that he has, for the reasons assigned, refused the invitation of tho Imperial Government. Australia, the/refore, will not be represented. The question at once arises whether, in the absence of Australia, it wilt he well to hold the Conference. Certainly the absence of so important a unit in the Imperial representation would render the Conference almost valueless; in respect of one important point quite so. Mr Bruce’s reasoning deserves, of counse, the most careful consideration. Its general contention is that all the subjects likely to interest the proposed Conference can easily be settled by j correspondence either by mail or by! cable. He has mentioned a few of these specifically. The Customs arrangements to meet the new policy of the, Baldwin Government in furtherance of j Imperial trade preference; the alloca- ! tion of the million subsidy to he set | apart by the British Parliament for' keeping the trade and devising new methods of marketing Dominion pro- j duce; and the reorganisation of the i Colonial Office. These are the things of supreme importance in his eyes. So far as he can see, they can he adjusted with-1 out any Conference. Correspondence \ will do everything needed. The strength of this is not in some cases self-evident. | The first question of the Customs regu-1 lations may be easily settled by correspondence, for, in face of the British , Prime Minister’s engagement to make no attempt at a general and radical I alteration of the tariff policy of British tradition, there can he but few matters of sufficient consequence to call together i the Imperial Prime Ministers. These,! moreover, are matters of goodwill of the Imperial Government, which that Government can settle for itself, and ought to. It will be for the dominions to accept thankfully. In any case, the concessions can he but temporary, keeping the Imperial position warm, so to speak, until some large permanent policy is established with statutory sanction. Such policy would certainly require a Conference. But the thing now to be offered does not. A conference might be very even for this question, hut no one can say that it would he indispensable. Quite the same cannot he said for the million to be spent on the improvement of marketing. In the first place, no one knows what are the improvements to he made. In the second, when these improvements are definitely proposed, their probable or possible effects will havo to he discussed. And this would involve technical knowledge on tho side of the oversea people who supply tho produce, and possibly some financial responsibility on the part of their Governments. For the guidance of all concerned, it seems to us that a Conference of Prime Ministers, Well supported by expert advisers, is necessary. The business presents vast difficulties caused by vested interests of the most complicated, by trade customs obscure to most people, by transport and storage problems of the most formidable. No doubt a man of large commercial experience, supported by experts as aforesaid, could represent each dominion at the Conference. But the best representative, in view of the finality, desirable and necessary in the solution of a problem of such importance, would bo the Prime Minister. The heavy responsibility incidental makes it almost impossible to consider any other representative. But all this ie only by the wav. Tbit for tho simple reason that Mr Bruce’. l

Battery of reasons misses the most important of all the reasons for holding tho Conference. The most important is the postponement of tho Geneva Protocol at the request of the British Government, for consultation with the dominions of the British Empire. It is not only a question of the interest of tho dominions in this or that policy. It is a question of their status Before the League of Nations. Before deciding about the Protocol, the dominions must arrange a system of securing a working majority vote in the relations of the Empire with the world, as represented by the League of Nations. They ought to be in a position to secure this vote as promptly as is possible. To do this they must revise their representation in London at the sent of Empire on the best lines open to them. This is a matter of permanenoe, a matter really of federal constitution, and a matter of great difficulty, because the working of tho foreign policy of the Empire must involve for rare occasions some disregard of constitutional principle, for the sake of national and Imperial safety. Nothing less than an Imperial Conference can settle the question on lines of likely permanence. The Conference now called will, of course, decide on the adoption or otherwise of the Protocol and even tihat must have a conference, for no correspondence, electric or otherwise, could properly cover the field of negotiation. But' its main work would be the establishment of a workable federal system adapted to the looseness of the tie which must bind the British Imperial, federation for many years to come. This is the reason for the Conference, which tfie Federal Prime Minister of Australia has missed in his discussion of the question of the Conference.