THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1926. THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19957, 26 November 1926, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1926. THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

Now that the Imperial Conference has come to an end, the public comments regarding it are couched in a vein of restraint which is in somewhat marked contrast with the expressions of exuberant satisfaction that greeted the most important of the reports—that relating to the question of Imperial relationship. The truth is that, as The Times has pointed out, this report contained no innovations and the Conference has introduced no startling changes. Any expectations which may have been entertained that the Conference would prove to be of historic value, becauso of the epoch-making advances (to quote an expression used by Mr Bruce) ascribable to it, have surely been disappointed. The most perplexing problems with which the Conference was confronted remain unsolved, as far as we can see, but, t-ince the representatives at it of both Great Britain and the dominions are evidently satisfied with the results, intangible though they may be, it may possibly be agreed that the Conference has been a success.. This conclusion may the more readily be accepted because, as Mr Baldwin says, progress is not measurable so much by words as by a "refreshment of spirit in every corner of the Empire in which the work will proceed for years to come." Viewed as a debating assembly, the Conference will not compare with some of those that have preceded it. That is, however, not to its discredit. The consideration of the issues that were remitted to it was for the most part entrusted to committees, whose reports seem to have been received with a unanimity that constitutes a distinct tribute to the care and delicacy with which the members adjusted their findings to the different viewpoints that must have been submitted to them. This method of transacting -the business of the Conference, although assuredly not spectacular, lias recommendations that are scarcely attachable to one under which diverse and possibly conflicting opinions are threshed out in plenary sessions. But it is productive of a feeling, which may be entirely mistaken, that the Conference Avas, after all, a tame affair. However the results of the conference may be regarded, the general value of the meeting in council of tho statesmen chiefly responsible for the management of the affairs of the various parts of the Empire must be held to be inestimable. General Hertzog spoke at the final session of the necessity for occasional meetings "in order to understand the feeling and spirit of London." The meetings are not less necessary that London may be enabled to understand the feeling and spirit of Canada, of Australia, of New Zealand, of South Africa, and of Newfoundland. And if the effect of the personal contact, imparted by the presence in London of delegates from each of the snlf-governing dominions, is to show that, as Mr Bruce says, "a most deeply warm vein of friendship permeates every portion of the Empire," great good has been accomplished even though the recorded decisions of the Conference may leave the impression that vital issues of Empire still remain to bo firmly tackled.