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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.885
18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
Fourteenth Day
9 May 1907.
SILVER COINAGE.
116
Mr. ASQUITHI: You would have to choose for yourselves about what you did.
Sir JOSEPH WARD: Would you concede the same to New Zealand if we desired it?
Mr. ASQUITH: Yes, I think you would stand on exactly the same footing. I think that is a thing you might consider, I do not ask for an immediate decision.
Mr. DEAKIN: I should like to consider it with any suggestions the experts of the Mint can make.
Mr. ASQUITH: I make further the offer found on the last part of the memorandum as to withdrawing the worn gold coin which is at present done in this country. I offered to withdraw that at Sydney, or Melbourne, or wherever you please. That would be a great convenience to your trading community. There are those two offers, you will kindly consider them.
Mr. DEAKIN: Thank you.
Dr. SMARTT: How would that meet the Colonics which do not coin their own silver? Would you be prepared to make them any allowance off the profits made on the silver coinage?
Mr. ASQUITHI: We will make you the same offer as the others.
Dr. SMARTT: But we do not coin.
Sir JOSEPH WARD: We do not coin either, but I will accept your offer, kindly made, and will consider it.
Dr. SMARTT: You do not think you can meet us in any way so long as we do not coin?
Mr. ASQUITH: You would probably find the establishment of a separate Mint in New Zealand would hardly be worth the candle?
Sir JOSEPH WARD: I think that is very possible.
Mr. ASQUITH: South Africa is rather different.
Dr. SMARTT: We see from the figures worked out that there is no difficulty of apportioning the profit to each Colony; consequently, you might be inclined to allow the Colony the profit made on the coining of the silver.
Mr. ASQUITHI: I will consider your case; and the whole of South Africa stands on the same footing as regards this-General Botha and Mr. Moor also.
Dr. SMARTT: You will consider my question without committing your- self as to what might be a fair allowance.
Mr. ASQUITH: Certainly, without committing ourselves at all.
117
GENERAL BOTHA'S FAREWELL.
General BOTHA: Lord Elgin and gentleman, my time is over now.
Fourteenth Day.
9 May 1907.
FAREWELL.
I unfortunately have to leave before you resume again. I must go on GENERAL BOTIA'S Saturday to South Africa, and probably this morning is my last attendance, but I hope I shall again have the opportunity of attending later Conferences. I cannot leave without saying good-bye to you all, expressing my gratitude to the Chairman for the able way in which he has led us and conducted the proceedings. It has been one of the greatest pleasures of my life to meet the representatives of the various Possessions here, and to shake hands with them, and I want to give you all this assurance that the friendships which I have formed here in person will always be strengthened as far as I am concerned.
CHAIRMAN: I think I may say on behalf of the Conference that I am sure we entirely respond to the sentiments expressed by General Botha.. It has been a great pleasure to us to see him here. We know he has come at considerable inconvenience to himself, but I venture to think that the Conference of this year would have suffered very much had he not been able to attend. We, I am sure, also reciprocate entirely the feeling of the advantages which we gain by mutual intercourse, and though I do not know which of us will be here to meet him, we shall hope that he, at any rate, will attend another Conference.
After a short adjournment :
BRITISH INTERESTS IN THE PACIFIC.
The Conference sat in private. On resuming:
1
Mr. DEAKIN: Lord Elgin, with the permission of the Conference I propose to invite their attention to this question from a general point of view because without reference to the past, I doubt if the intention of the Commonwealth Government can be made clear. There was time--and that not so far distant-when this ocean was ignored and these Islands were little visited because they presented small opportunities of trade or settlement--a time at which Great Britain was so much the predominating power that almost anything desired in the way of possession or suzerainty could have been acquired without difficulty. Of course the dead past must be left to bury its dead, but some reference is necessary to the indifferent attitude of statesmen in this country, a not unnatural attitude because, to the United Kingdom, the Pacific is remote, and not over the greater part of it even a highway of much traffic. On the other hand, to Australia and New Zealand in particular, and also to Canada, the future of the Pacific is extremely important, and may become more so at any time, now that attention is directed to its great spaces where rival nations have found a footing, and are if anything disposed to strengthen their hold. This difference of situation led from the first to a different attitude of mind on the part of the people of the Commonwealth and New Zealand, the people of Australasia, as compared with that of the people of the Mother Country. As a consequence, the course that has been followed and consistently followed in Australasia has neither been under- stood nor appreciated here. I do not wish to dwell once more upon the
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BRITISH
INTERESTS IN THE PACIFIC.