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COLONIAL CONFERENCE, 1907.

MEMORANDA

AND CORRESPONDENCE

PRINTED IN CONNECTION WITH THE

COLONIAL CONFERENCE,

AND

NOT CIRCULATED TO MEMBERS.

No. I.

Organization of the Colonial Office.

There is no fixed arrangement for sending members of the staff of the Colonial Office to the Colonies either to hold appointments or on periodical visits.

The fact that no such permanent scheme has hitherto been adopted in the case of Crown Colonies indicates to some extent that the necessity for any definite and large scheme may be overrated.

In Crown Colonies the details of administration are supervised and controlled by the Secretary of State, yet even there all minutiæ must be left to the local governmental authorities.

It has been of considerable advantage, no doubt, that on certain special occasions, as Secretaries for Commissions, members of the Colonial Office have visited the Crown Colonies, and have become acquainted with the circumstances and conditions of those Colonies, but such visits being of short duration have not done more than enable the officials to obtain a general acquaintance. Mr. Chamberlain introduced a scheme of a more permanent character under which there should be temporary interchange between members of the Colonial Office and members of the Colonial service. The result of the experiment has been in a measure satisfactory, as was to be expected, but it has not led to any feeling that it would be justifiable to continue the experiment on a large scale. The nature of the work in the Colonial Office differs from that ordinarily performed by such an officer as a Colonial Secretary, and affords less room for initiative, and the Colonial Officer feels himself dwarfed within the walls of the Colonial Office.

It remains that even in administering the Crown Colonies, the matters which require settlement in the Colonial Office are broader issues and questions involving principle, in regard to which detailed local knowledge is not absolutely necessary.

In the case of a self-governing Colony, such as the Dominion of Canada, or the Commonwealth of Australia, the functions of the Colonial Office and of the Secretary of State entirely negative the necessity of a knowledge of details of the administration, and what the resolution appears to imply is that members of the Colonial Office should have a sense of the atmosphere of the Colony by having been brought into personal acquaintance with the inhabitants, with their habits and modes of thought, and by having resided for a time among the natural features which have helped to form the character and life of the population. The value of such personal contact is that it creates a bond of sympathy between the Colonies and Downing Street, and awakens greater confidence and less liability to occasional misappre- hensions on both sides. The Treasury would naturally not be inclined to

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