CHAP, III] THE CONFERENCE OF 1911 1503
finally moved (¢) resolutions in favour of holding a further
Conference in one of the Dominions, and a reciprocal inter-
change of ministerial visits.
(@) The Imperial Council and the Reorganization of the
Colonial Office :
The proposal for the establishment of an Imperial Council
of State brought forward by the Government of New Zealand
assumed in the course of discussion a somewhat different
form. Sir Joseph Ward, in developing the proposal, dwelt
apon the constant growth of the self-governing Dominions
and on their just claim to be given a share, though at present
a subordinate share, in the conduct of Imperial policy. At
present the Imperial Government 2 was solely responsible for
the issues of peace and war, and thus by its policy it could
involve the self-governing Dominions in war, even though it
remained for those Dominions to decide to what extent they
would actually co-operate.
To remedy the defect he proposed that there should be
established a Parliament of Defence, which would include the
consideration of foreign policy and of international treaties
in so far as they affected the Empire and such other Imperial
matters as might by agreement be transferred to such a
Parliament. He proposed that Canada, Australia, South
Africa, New Zealand, and Newfoundland should elect to an
Imperial House of Representatives for Defence one repre-
+ Cd. 5745, pp. 36 seq. Cf. Col. Hughes's similar scheme, Canada House
of Commons Debates, 1906-7, pp. 2840 seq.
* The Imperial Government is the Government of the United Kingdom
{the two are used synonymously in the Proceedings and Resolutions) as
matters now stand, and Sir J. Ward’s proposal was to make it Imperial in
the larger sense of including representatives of the Empire as a whole. In
his interesting study of Imperialism (Ottawa, 1911), Mr. J. S. Ewart seems
bo forget that historically Imperial as used of the British Crown and Govern-
ment is rather a signification of independent sovereignty (on a footing of
equality with the Roman Empire—recognized in the case of William III
formally by the Empire) than of control over dependencies. The British
Empire connotes really the whole ag an independent unit of international
aw, not a dominion of one part over the rest. Cf. 24 Hen, VIIL ¢. 12.
Dd?2
