1508 IMPERIAL UNITY [PART vITI
Conference, it was essential that something should be done
to maintain touch between the several Conferences, and
he pressed for the further consideration of his scheme.
Mr. Harcourt, therefore, undertook to circulate a definite
proposal to the Conference for consideration.
At the meeting of June 8 the Conference resumed the
discussion of the question of the proposed Standing Com-
mittee of the Imperial Conference which had been brought
forward by the Imperial Government! Mr. Harcourt had
circulated for the consideration of the Conference a memo-
randum ? in which he had outlined more precisely the nature
of his proposal. He reminded the Conference that in the
last paragraph of the first resolution of the Conference of
1907 it had been agreed that upon matters of importance
requiring consultation between two or more Governments
which cannot conveniently be postponed until the next
Conference, or involving subjects of a minor character or
such as call for detailed consideration, subsidiary Conferences
should be held between representatives of the Governments
concerned specially chosen for the purpose ’. In accordance
with this resolution two subsidiary Conferences—the Defence
Conference of 1909 and the Copyright Conference of 1910—
had been held, and His Majesty’s Government now suggested
that any matters which could not conveniently be dealt with
by subsidiary Conferences should be referred, with the con-
sent of the several Governments, to a Standing Committee
of the Imperial Conference, which would thus be a subsidiary
Conference not limited to one subject, and meeting at more
or less regular intervals for the transaction of business
referred to it by the Secretary of State for the Colonies with
the assent of the Dominion Governments. As a parallel to
such a Committee were adduced the Standing Committee of
the Board of Trade, which advised the Board of Trade on
commercial intelligence and the diffusion of commercial
information, and the Advisory Committee appointed to
advise the Board of Trade and the Colonial Office upon the
administrative work of the Imperial Institute, and reference
* Cd. 5745, pp. 173 seq. 2 See Cd. 5746-1, pp. 212-4,
