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Governments have found it possible to act on the proposals for the creation of the Imperial General Staff submitted to them. The words in italics should therefore be omitted. An amendment was also required on p. 19 of the report: Applications from the Dominions or Colonies for advice from the Home Goverument would be made "through the Governor-General or Governor concerned.” These words should be inserted.
LORD HALDANE said that the paper on General Defence Policy should embody an authoritative expression of the views of the Board of Admiralty and of the General Staff.
THE PRIME MINISTER, referring to paragraph 3 of the report, said that as there would be very little spare time it would be necessary to have a programme and time table for the Conference ready to give to the representatives of the Dominions on their arrival, and the procedure of preliminary consultations suggested in paragraph 4 would have to be proposed to them at the same time, instead of waiting for the opening meeting of the Conference itself.
(Conclusion.)
The report of the Sub-Committee, with Mr. Harcourt's amendments, was approved.
2. THE INTERNATIONAL STATUS OF THE DOMINIONS DURING A WAR IN WHICH THE UNITED KINGDOM IS ENGAGED. (C.I.D. Paper 70-C.)
MR. MCKENNA read paragraph 4 of his Memorandum printed in the paper under discussion, which he said embodied his views as to the General Policy. He also desired to add that in the particular case of Australia it had been agreed between the Commonwealth Government and the Admiralty that once the Australians had placed their naval forces at the disposal of the Admiralty they were not at liberty to withdraw them while the war lasted. If the question dealt with in this paper were now raised, this agreement would come to an end, and it was improbable that by pressing this question we should improve our position. No naval agreement had yet been made with Canada.
SIR ARTHUR NICOLSON said that his views were contained in his Memorandum in the paper under discussion. If the United Kingdom were in a state of war, her Dominions were necessarily in a state of war also. For them to proclaim their neutrality was to announce their secession from the Empire. If there was any doubt of what their attitude was likely to be, it was quite useless to communicate the report of Lord Hardinge's Sub-Committee to them.
MR. HARCOURT suggested that the omission of paragraph 3 of the abridged report (C.I.D. Paper 124-B) might perhaps obviate the question being raised. The difficulty was one of domestic politics in the Dominions. There was also grave risk of information, however secret, leaking out. The publication of confidential matters in the Dominion newspapers was a frequent occurrence.
SIR WILLIAM NICHOLSON pointed out that the Dominions were constantly enquiring how their military forces could aid us in case of war, which did not look as if they really entertained any idea of not taking part in a serious struggle. He suggested that the addition of the words "outside their own territories at the end of paragraph 3 might perhaps solve the difficulty.
"
LORD HALDANE said that he thought that we should act on the assumption that the Dominions would take part in a serious war. There was very little doubt that they would, and he was sure that their statesmen were quite alive to the fact that they would really have very little choice, none unless the enemy so willed; but for reasons of internal politics, which were quite comprehensible, they declined to bind themselves beforehand. The substitution of the word "discretion " for "freedom" in the fourth line of paragraph 3 might get over the difficulty to some extent, or, perhaps better still, the amendment of the last two lines to read: "it will not in any way prejudice their control over their own affairs.”
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