1512 IMPERIAL UNITY [PART VIII
by the Prime Minister to be impossible in practice : there
were 27,000 papers a year to be dealt with, of which 1,000
must go before the political head of the office, and no Prime
Minister could face the duty. Sir J. Ward also withdrew
his proposed change of the title of the Secretary of State.!
The Conference then discussed the question of the interchange
 of civil servants which was brought forward by
Sir Joseph Ward,? viz. ‘ That it is in the interests of the
Imperial Government and also of the Governments of the
overseas Dominions, that an interchange of selected officers
of the respective Civil Services should take place from time
to time with a view to the acquirement of better knowledge
for both services with regard to questions that may arise
affecting the respective Governments. Mr. Harcourt sympathized
 with the view that there should be greater mutual
knowledge, but he dealt upon the difficulties which lay in the
way of a formal interchange of civil servants. If, however,
any Dominion Government sent over representatives and
attached them to the High Commissioners’ Office, they
would be given full facilities to become acquainted with the
work of the different public departments. Similarly, members
 of the Colonial Office had been attached to the staff of
the Governors-General of the Union of South Africa, the
Dominion of Canada, and the Commonwealth of Australia,
and the Colonial Office would have the advantage of their
knowledge and experience when they returned, while visits
had been paid to some of the Dominions by Sir Charles
Lucas and Mr. Just. He would be glad also to afford any
further assistance possible to the Dominion Governments.
Mr. Batchelor for the Commonwealth of Australia accepted
the view of Mr. Harcourt, and the resolution wag therefore
adopted with the substitution of © visits ’ for the proposal
of interchange.
* The dislike to the word Colony as applied to self-governing dominions,
though real (cf. Ewart, The Kingdom Papers, pp. 20-2, and Mr. Lynch’s
successful blocking of a Governor’s Pension Bill which used the term in
1911), is not very intelligible to Englishmen, and de facto Dominion Ministries
constantly use it. Dominion has no adjectival equivalent.
* Ibid., pp. 194-6.