IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15543, 11 June 1921, Page 3

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

AMERICAN STORY DENIED. CRITICISM OF CONSTITUTION. lElcc Tel Copyright-United Press Assn.) (Australian and N.Z. Canle Association! LONDON, June 9. The secretariat emphatically deny the report that Dr. Butler, president of Columbia University, has been invited to address the Imperial Conference on Federal Constitutions or any subject. Mr Massey says the statement is obviously unfounded, because nobody is entitled to address the conference except on the invitation of the conference, which-is, as yet, not constituted. LONDON, Juno 10.

The Daily Telegraph, discussing the constitution and limitations of the Imperial Conference, says: There is no Parliament or electorate to whom the conference can he made answerable. It is hardly possible to apportion the precise responsibility, for, though the Dominion Premiers are consulted and given confidential information, the executive authority remains with the British Ministry. subject to control of the House of Commons. The machinery for joint action regarding naval defence, foreign policy and inter-imperial trade is loose and clumsy, and ought to be amended, provided the amendment does not abridge the rights of local self determination, which the overseas committees will not abandon.