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State-owned Atlantic Cable and Telegraph line across Canada ;

Publicity of Proceedings;

Imperial Representation ;

The reconstruction of the Colonial Office

Interchange of Civil Servants;

State-owned British Wireless Telegraph Stations;

Double Taxation, and Stamp Duties on Colonial Bonds;

Commercial co-operation for the encouragement of British Manufactures and

Shipping;

The Declaration of London;

Emigration and the position of Labour Exchanges;

Currency and Coinage;

Co-operation between the naval and military forces of the Empire and the

status of Dominion navies;

The position of British Indians in the Dominions.

9. The subjects above set forth as a basis for agenda of the Conference are of varying importance, but it seems clear that there must come first the question of the publicity of the proceedings of the Conference and the resolutions of New Zealand on the subject of Imperial Representation, the reconstruction of the Colonial Office, and the interchange of Civil Servants, which have relation to the constitution of the Conference itself. There might follow the subjects proposed by two Dominions, viz. :-

Merchant Shipping and Navigation Laws;

The All Red Route;

The Imperial Court of Appeal ;

The State-owned Atlantic Cable and line across Canada.

Amongt the remaining subjects proposed by one Dominion or by His Majesty's Government a greater measure of importance appears to attach to the subjects of- co-operation between the naval and military forces of the Empire and the status of Dominion navies, the position of British Indians, co-operation in commercial matters, and the support of British trade and shipping, emigration, the Declaration of London, State-owned wireless telegraph rates, and the cheapening of cable rate. These subjests might accordingly have the next place on the agenda, which would be completed, should time allow, by the inclusion of the subjects of universal penny postage, coinage, and currency, and double taxation and stamp duties on Colonial bonds.

I have &c.

L. HARCOURT,

Appendix II.

NOTE BY LORD ESHER.

IT would be a great misfortune if at the approaching meeting of the Imperial Conference an attempt were not to be made to endeavour to come to a settlement as to the conditions which should prevail throughout the Empire upon questions of defence.

Some ideas were undoubtedly formulated at the previous Conference, but they were rather in the nature of pious aspirations and somewhat vague generalities. The plan of an Imperial General Staff for the purposes of war on land was defined, and certain steps were subsequently taken to initiate the formation of such a body, but war on land solves a part only of the problem of Imperial defence, and nothing in the nature of a combined General Staff, whose function it should be to consider joint operations of war on sea and on land, was even considered. Great Britain and her Dominions are as far as ever from the solution of the vital problem of the means and methods by which all portions of the Empire are instantaneously to co-operate in a scheme of common defence in the event of the Empire being threatened by a combination of hostile Powers. This, I would venture to suggest, should be the primary work of the Imperial Conference, as it is upon a sound appreciation of possible dangers, and a clear

&

ERAR

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