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The SECRETARY OF STATE: I think we will say Friday, then. That will meet everybody's convenience. The next meeting will be Friday, there- fore. In the meantime these two resolutions will be sent round to everybody. Friday at 11, then.
Sir EDMUND BARTON: What are wo to discuss, Sir?
The SECRETARY OF STATE: Military defence.
Adjourned till Friday next at 11 a.m.
FIFTH DAY.
Friday, July 25th, 1902.
PRESENT:
The Right Honourable J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., Ilis Majesty's
Secretary of State for the Colonies.
The Right Honourable Sir WILFRID LAURIER, G.C.M.G., Premier of
Canada.
The Right Honourable Sir EDMUND BARTON, G.C.M.G., Promier of
Australia.
The Right Honourablo R. J. SEDDOŃ, Premier of New Zealand.
The Honourable Tuos. EKIN FULLER, for the Right Honourable Sir
GORDON SPRIGG, G.C.M.G., Premior of Cape Colony.
The Right Honourable Sir ALBERT HIME, K.C.M.G., Premior of Natal. The Right Honourable Sir ROBERT BOND, K.C.M.G., Premior
Newfoundland.
of
The EARL OF ONSLOW, G.C.M.G., Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
for the Colonies.
Sir M. F. OMMANNEY, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., Pormanent Under-Secretary of
State for the Colonies.
PRESENT ALSO :——
Sir JOHN ANDERson, Secretary.
The Right Honourable ST. JOHN BRODRICK, M.P., His Majesty's -
Secretary of State for War.
Lieutenant-General Sir WM. NICHOLSON, K.C.B., Director-Gioneral of
Military Intelligence.
The Right Honourable The EARL OF SELBORNE, The First Lord of the
Admiralty.
The Honourable Sir FREDERICK BORDEN, K.C.M.G., Miuister of Militia
and Defence for the Dominion of Canada.
.
The Honourable W. S. FIELDING, Minister of Finance for the Dominion
of Canada.
The SECRETARY OF STATE: To-day we take up the question of military defence, and I will ask the Secretary of State for War to open the matter.
4
The SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR: Mr. Chamberlain and Gentlemen, ---On the last occasion, when I had the pleasure of attending here,
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Lord Selborne opened the Conference on the question of Imperial defence from the standpoint of the Navy, and we have before us with regard to the Army a Notice of Motion formulated by the Government of New Zealand to the effect: "That it is desirable to have an Imperial Reserve Force formed in each of His Majesty's Dominions over the seas for service in case of emergency outside the Dominion or Colony in which such Reserve is formed. "The limits within which such Reserve Force may be employed outside "the Colony wherein it is raised to be defined by the Imperial and Colonial Governments at the time such Reserve is formed, and to be in accordance with any law in force for the time being respecting the same. The cost of maintaining and equipping such Imperial Reserve Force to be defrayed in such proportion and manner as may be agreed upon between the Imperial and Colonial Governments."
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That has developed further than the Motion, and although I heartily concur with the terms of the Motion generally, I may perhaps be allowed to say that what I may be able to say to-day is not in any way based on that resolution. The question of our Imperial Land Forces is one which has not been brought forward either by the momentary impetus of the late war, or by anything but a desire for a settled policy in this respect, and I would venture to point out that our whole progress in this country for the last years has been to some such end as that which we are now asking you to put your seal upon. National defence had been allowed to go very much backward during the "seventies." During the eighties," Sir, very considerable progress was made, especially after Lord Randolph Churchill's resignation as Chancellor of the Exchequer, which was based upon and which formed a subject of a trial of strength as to whether our coaling stations for the Navy and national defences should be maintained. Since then attempts have been made from time to time to estimate what our land forces might be called upon to undertake. Those attempts have become more necessary year by year. It is practically impossible to exclude from our minds the necessities not of offensive but of defensive action for the maintenance of our Colonies and Dependencies all over the world, and the Government have, within the last two years, definitely stated, I think almost for the first time, how they adjust our land forces at home, and what proportion they hold in readiness for the protection of our interests in other parts of the globe.
Perhaps I might recapitulate the views which I put before the House of Commons, now 18 months ago, on behalf of the Government, and which, after long discussions, were accepted, and have been practically generally agreed to by Parliament. We are prepared-and our organisation enables us in the future to send 120,000 regular troops abroad to any part of the British Empire which may be threatened. We keep up a home field army of another 120,000 mon; we keep 120,000 men for our garrisons; we have a large number-somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000— employed in various positions for the defence of London and for strategic positions which might be threatened in case of invasion. But large as these proportions may sound, they are certainly not deemed too large, by our inilitary advisers, in view of the possibility of our at any time losing the command of the sea, and I would venture to remind the Conference that what Great Britain does off her own bat towards defence of Colonies and Depen- dencies, is not limited by her power to soud 120,000 men to any threatened position in case of emergency. We have close upon 80,000 British troops in India.
We have always some 30,000 in the Colonial garrisons, and
at present and probably for some long time to come we must, in view of South Africa, look to keeping a larger number than those. Therefore, we have, either abroad at this moment or liable to go abroad on any emer- gency, close upon a quarter of a million of men. And I would point out that this is not a force kept for ambitious schemes or offensive operations or for an attempt to involve ourselves in the great quarrels of our neighbours in Europe. We have only got to look to the illustrations of the late war to see that in fixing 120,000 men as our contingent, we are rather under than over the mark of what we might be called upon to send, having in view that we have had to send double the number, with your assistance, for the defence of two of our Colonies.
£ 31830.
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