545
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.885
7
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
54
and command the admiration and respect not only of the whole British race, but of every race in the British dominions." It would be a powerful factor in the development of a closer union between all parts of the Empire. In the British dominions-it would obliterate in the administration of justice all distinctions between place and persons.
Just as there is one flag to protect the subject from external assault, so there would be one Court as the final arbiter of internal disputes.
I have, &c
No. 38.
HENRY HODGES.
CONFERENCE AT THE COLONIAL OFFICE, DOWNING STREET, LONDON, S. W., os THURSDAY, JULY 11, 1901, At Noon.
Second Day.
PRESENT:
The Right Hon. the EARL OF HALSBURY, the Lord Chancellor.
The Right Hon. J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., IIis Majesty's Secretary of State for 'the Colonies.
The Right Hon. the EARL OF ONSLOW, Iis Iajesty's Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies.
The Right Hon. Sir ROBERT FINLAY, K.C., M.P., IIis Majesty's Attorney- General.*
1
The Right Hon. Sir EDWARD CARSON, K.C., M.P., His Majesty's Solicitor- General.
The Hon. DAVID MILLS, Minister of Justice in the Dominion Cabinet.
His Honour HENRY EDWARD AGINCOURT HODGES, Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria.
Sir JAMES PRENDERGAST, late Chief Justice of New Zealand,
The Hon. JAMES ROSE INNES, K.C., the Attorney-General of the Cape of Good Hope.
Mr. WILLIAM BOASE MORCOM, K.C., M.L.A. (Natal).
His Honour GEORGE HENRY EMERSON, Judge, of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland.
Sir WILLIAM JAMES SMITH, Chief Justice of British Guiana.
Sir JOHN EDGE, representing the Secretary of State for India.
H. BERTRAM COX, Esq., Assistant Under-Secretary at the Colonial Office.
The LORD CITANCELLOR: Well, I think Mr. Chamberlain has something to inquire of you.
Mr. CHAMBERLAIN: We have received, very late, Mr. Justice Hodges' observations and dissent from the Resolutions agreed to by the majority of the Delegates; but I am afraid we have not yet had time to consider them; they came to me only last night.
• Sir R. Finloy arrived at a late stage of the proceedings, being detained at the House of Commons. (See
p. 49.)
135
55
Mr. Justice IIODGES: I completed them as soon as I could. Yesterday morning
I left a copy for Mr. Rose Innes, and asked that it should be passed on to Mr. Mills, who was staying at the same hotel. I do not know whether he did so.
Mr. ROSE INNES: No, I did not. I did not get the message.
Mr. Justice HODGES: I left a message, that was all.
Mr. CHAMBERLAIN; As I understand the matter now, it would appear that the majority of the Delegates-in fact, all, with the exception of Mr. Justice Hodges ubstantially approve of the existing system, and do not desire to see any radical alterations in it, although I think they indicate their opinion that it might be desirable that the British Government should feel itself entirely at liberty at any time to appoint a capable lawyer representing any of the Colonies upon the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Mr. Justice Hodges, however, proposes a very much more sweeping alteration; in fact, he would do away both with the jurisdiction, as it stands at present, of the House of Lords and with the jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and would create a new body, which he would call the Supreme or Imperial Court of the Empire, which would amalgamate those two bodies, and to which all the appeals would go from all parts of the Empire; and he urges various reasons in support of that view. Of course, I should say that we are well aware, and Mr. Justice Hodges must be aware, that it would be an extremely difficult thing to make a change of that kind, affecting institutions so venerable and so long established as the jurisdiction of the House of Lords and of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and it might he impossible to carry a change of that kind. I think it would not be in accordance -at the present tine, at any rule-with the majority of opinion in this country. Bui it seems hardly necessary that we should enter upon that subject, because it is quite elai that we could not entertain it at all unless the proposal came to us practically as a mnanimous propes: from all the Colonies concerned. kind, with all the difficulties attending it, when we are under the impression that a To attempt a change of that majority of the Colonies would object to the change, would be, of course, quite futile; and I think, while we are much indebted to Mr. Justice Hodges for putting the views of the Colony so clearly before us, he himself would see that the time cannot be said to have come when, in view of the difference of opinion which has disclosed itself, we could usefully undertake to consider that suggestion. That is how the matter seems to me to stand after the discussions which the Delegates have had and in view of the papers which they have submitted. There was one question upon which the Delegates have not touched at all, and about which I should very much like to have their opinion; that is to say, supposing that, cither in one form or another, it were desired hereafter to add Colonial Judges to the present Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, what is the view of the Delegates with regard to their proper maintenance? For instance, would the Dominion of Canada, the Government of the Cape of Good Hope, and the Dominion of Australia, be prepared in such a case to meet the action of the Imperial Government by providing a sufficient sum to enable a Judge so appointed to hold his own in this country and to represent properly the dignity of his office? Is that their view in indicating their opinion that such appointments might be desirable?
The Hon. DAVID MILLS: I am afraid I cannot speak for my colleagues in that matter; it is not one that we discussed. I think there was a statement made by Mr. Chamberlain in discussing the Commonwealth Bill that if the appointments were made on behalf of the Colonies, they would be paid for out of the Imperial Treasury.
Mr. CHAMBERLAIN: I think my statement did not go quite so far as that. I think it was a hypothetical statement. It was a statement to the effect that that would not be allowed to stand in the way, and that, I think, may be taken as having been the declaration of His Majesty's Government. If we thought it desirable to appoint a Colonial Judge, we should not allow the money to stand in the way. But, at the same time, we do wish, before deciding to do anything of the kind, to have the opinion of the Colonies. I thought that possibly they might think it was a little infra dig. that a Judge appointed specially as the representative of a Colony should be paid for by the mother-country. "It was only to have the opinion of the Delegates that I raised the question.