CHAP. II] IMPERIAL CO-OPERATION 1477
for keeping all records both of the Council and the Commis-
sion,
The proposals made both as to title and the permanent
Commission were welcomed by the Governments of the
Cape and Natal. The Government of Australia also con-
curred both in the proposed formation of an Imperial Council
and a permanent Commission, and on such a Commission
they considered that the Government of Australia should be
allowed two representatives at least, one of whom should
be the High Commissioner when appointed, or his substitute.
The Government of Newfoundland were not convinced that
the time had yet come to carry out the proposals suggested
in Mr. Lyttelton’s dispatch. They were inclined to think
that such an Imperial Council would necessarily acquire
or possess a certain degree of executive authority, and
Newfoundland was not in a position to take any positive
steps either to contribute towards the cost of the defence of
the Empire as a whole, or to give a preference in commercial
matters, a reference to the Hay—Bond Convention of 1902.
The Government of New Zealand were not able to reply,
and the Government of Canada, in a reasoned minute of
November 13, 1905, were somewhat adverse to the scheme.
The remarks of the Canadian Government were as
follows 1 :——
The Committee at the outset are disposed to consider that
any change in the title or status of the Colonial Conference
should rather originate with, and emanate from, that body
itself. At the same time, being fully alive to the desire of
His Majesty's Government to draw closer the ties uniting
the Colonies with each other and with the Motherland, they
are prepared to give the proposals referred to their respectful
consideration, and having done so, beg leave to offer the
following observations :—
Your excellency’s advisers are entirely at one with His
Majesty’s Government in believing that political institutions
‘may often be wisely left to develop in accordance with
circumstances and, as it were, of their own accord ’, and it
is for this reason that they entertain with some doubt the
proposal to change the name of the Colonial Conference to
v Parl. Pap., Cd. 2785, p. 14; Jebb, op. cit., ii. 7-24.
