PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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Reference :-
C.O.88
17 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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'Imperial Council," with the ordinary powers
of a public department, would, it seems to me, satisfactorily discharge the duties it is proposed to lay upon the Commission.
April 7, 1905..
(SIR M. OMMANNEY.)
F. G.
The draft despatch deals with two pro- posals:-
(a) That the periodical Colonial Con- ference shall in future be called an Imperial Council, and that its constitution shall be altered by making the Prime Minister its President, assisted by the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Secretary of State for India in, apparently, a position which will give to each of these two Ministers an equal status in the Council.
(b) That a permanent Commission shall be formed, having the powers of a Royal Commission and its own offices and staff, borne upon Imperial votes, to prepare the preliminaries for a coming Council and to examine and report upon the best means. of giving effect to the resolutions of the Council.
As to (a) Imperial Conference seems to be a better name than Imperial Council for a body which is not in permanent and continuous session and which meets only at intervals for The the express purpose of conferring. assumption of the Presidentship by the Prime Minister will undoubtedly be welcome to the Colonies, but I agree with the previous minutes as to the necessity of preserving the status of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. He might be Vice-President and it might be arranged that the Prime Minister should, as a rule, preside only at the opening and closing meetings, an arrangement which would re- lieve him of the necessity of presiding, in the full swing of the Session, over the very pro- longed meetings of the Conference.
But is it desirable to propose that the Secre- tary of State for India shall be given a position - in the Conference differing from that of other Ministers whose attendance can always be secured when a question specially affecting them is under consideration?
The Austra-
lasian Colonies and South Africa are holding India at arm's length and the Constitution and Administration of India, its institutions and population are so absolutely different to those of the self-governing Colonies that they are bound to approach the great majority of sub- jects, dealt with by the Conference from
See the appen- dices to Miscel-
laneous No. 144.
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strongly antagonistic points of view. A reso- lution, unanimously supported by the Prime Ministers of all the self-governing Colonies, for the extension of self-government to India would place the Imperial Government and the Indian Government in a position of much difficulty and embarrassment; and a discussion on the treatment of Asiatics in the self- governing Colonies would not be likely to be either harmonious or useful. I think that both India and the Crown Colonies should be ex- cluded from the scope of the Conference. The Imperial Government has ample power to shape the policy of these dependencies, and the real object of Colonial Conferences, and their only practical result, has been to avoid mis- takes and misunderstandings in the main- tenance of the relations which exist between the Imperial Government and the self- governing communities which are, in so many respects, practically independent.
I think it
is quite likely that they will resent the pro- posed permanent position of India in a con- ference which, in the absence of that Depen- dency, will still be Imperial in the sense that it is called together for the discussion of sub- jects of common interest to the Colonial and Imperial Governments.
With regard to (b), the appointment of a per- manent Commission seems to me unnecessary, so far as the preparation of the business of the Conference is concerned, and certain to prove ineffective and dangerous if it attempts to deal As with the resolutions of the Conference. to the preparation of preliminaries, the pro- cedure adopted prior to the Conference of 1902 was simple and businesslike, and proved to be completely efficient. Sufficient notice was given us of the resolutions to be introduced, and the North American and Australian Department, with the assistance of the South African Department, collected, analysed, and abstracted all the reports, papers, and statis- tics bearing upon the questions to be discussed. I attended all the meetings of the Conference, and was in constant touch with the Prime Ministers. I never heard even a hint of dis- satisfaction as regards the manner in which the preliminaries had been dealt with. On the contrary, several of the Prime Ministers volunteered the expression of their apprecia- tion of the admirable manner in which the work had been done. It had been approached with the experience of years, and a complete knowledge of the papers which it is impossible that a Commission, constituted as proposed, and constantly changing, can possess. From this point of view a Commission seems to me unnecessary.
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For the other purposes for which its ap- pointment is contemplated it is open to more