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DESPATCH

FROM THE

SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES

AS TO THE

REPRESENTATION OF THE SELF-GOVERNING DOMINIONS ON

THE COMMITTEE OF IMPERIAL DEFENCE.

No. 1.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to the GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF AUSTRALIA, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA, AND THE GOVERNORS oF NEW ZEALAND AND NEWFOUNDLAND.

Downing Street, 10th December, 1912.

My Lord, SIK,

I AM forwarding by post, for the confidential information of your Ministers, a record of the proceedings at the Committee of Imperial Defence on May 30th, 1911 (during the Imperial Conference) and on August 1st, 1912 (during the visit of the Canadian Ministers to London).

This record deals solely with the question of the representation of the Dominions on the Committee of Imperial Defence.

[Omitted to New Zealand, Your Ministers, who were present on the first occasion, will remember that] the matter arose out of a Resolution by Sir Joseph Ward on the Agenda of the Imperial Conference, asking that the High Commissioners of the Dominions should be summoned to the Committee of Imperial Defence when naval and military matters affecting the Oversea Dominions were under consideration. unanimous view of all those present on May 30th, 1911, was that the representation of The the Dominions should be not by the High Commissioner but by Ministers who would be responsible to their own colleagues and Parliament, and at the same time it was decided that a Defence Committee should be established in each Dominion which would be kept in close touch with the Committee of Imperial Defence at home. The Resolutions ultimately put forward by His Majesty's Government and accepted unanimously by the members of the Imperial Conference at the Committee of Imperial Defence were as follows :-(1) That one or more representatives, appointed by the respective Govern- ments of the Dominions, should be invited to attend meetings of the Committee of Imperial Defence when questions of naval and military defence affecting the Oversea Dominions are under consideration. (2) The proposal that a Defence Committee should be established in each Dominion is accepted in principle. The constitution of these Defence Committees is a matter for each Dominion to decide.

The Canadian Government having changed in the autumn of 1911 it was necessary, when Mr. Borden and his colleagues visited England this summer, to put these proposals before them, as they were of course unaware of the previous proceedings. Subject to consultation with his colleagues in Canada, Mr. Borden provisionally accepted the resolutions as passed and stated that he saw no difficulty in one of his Ministers, either with or without portfolio, spending some months of every year in London in order to carry out this intention. Mr. Asquith and I had, subsequently, several private conversa- tions with him, at which he expressed the desire that the Canadian and other Dominions Ministers who might be in London as members of the Committee of Imperial Defence should receive, in confidence, knowledge of the policy and proceedings of the Imperial Government in foreign and other affairs. We pointed out to him that the Committee of Imperial Defence is a purely advisory body and is not, and cannot under any circumstances

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