THE Waikato Independent. SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 1911. THE COUNCIL OF EMPIRE.

Waikato Independent, Volume XII, Issue 1020, 3 June 1911, Page 4

THE Waikato Independent. SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 1911. THE COUNCIL OF EMPIRE.

POSSIBLY the most momentous event in connection with the visit of Colonial statesmen to Great Britain to take part in the Imperial Conference has been their admission into the councils of the Imperial Defence Committee. That this was not a mere act of courtesy is abundantly proved by the statements of Mr Fisher, Premier of Australia, Mr Botha, Premier of South Africa, and Mr Haldane, Minister .for War, and also by the comments made by leading English newspapers. jgMr Fisher’s statement in the course of an interview with the Morning Post is most significant. “Today,” he said, “the Dominions are part of the Empire in all things. No development, however sudden, should now be beyond our understanding.” This can mean nothing else but that the oversea delegates have been admitted into the innermost recesses of British foreign policy, and that the secrets of Britain’s international relations have been con-

thus placed in the men whom the various Dominions have sent Home to represent them is most gratifying and .will do more to strengthen the bonds of Empire than any cul-and-dried arrangement between the Homeland and the self-governing countries which fly the British flag. In addressing the London University Officers’ Training Corps, subsequent to the sitting of the Defence Council, Lcrd Haldane said: “We opened our minds to each other, and have taken each other into our conJidence. Weiound that we had common common objects, and a common mind, and now we have come to a common conclusion on problems which until recently were obscure and difficult.” It is therefore evident that a clear and explicit understanding has ■been come to between the delegates and die Defence authorities, and that in future Colonial Governments will have a knowledge of the workings of inlernalionardiplomacy*which will be of the utmost value in enabling them to have a true idea as to what steps are necessary to safeguard their interests and welfare. If the Imperial Conference were productive of nothing else than (he establishment of a confidence between England and her dependencies it has done a ,work invaluable in welding together the links of Empire and in breaking„down those hoary traditions of exclusiveness which were beginning to be a source of irritation to the junior partners in John Bull and Co.