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be ex officio in charge of it also, as representing the Conference. That would be my view. Sir WILFRID LAURIER : That does not answer my question. Do I understand that this body should not be under direct ministerial responsibility '. ]n this draft resolution it is proposed that this staff should be under the direct ministerial responsibility of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. Dr. JAMESON : It certainly should be under the direct responsibility of the Conference. Sir WILFRID LAURIER: I differ in toto from you. I think any staff of that kind must be under the direct responsibility of a Minister. This is a conference between governments and governments, and here, if you have a body which is under the responsibility of no one, neither the British Governments nor the other governments interested, the Colonial Governments, you create a state within a state. Dr. JAMESON : I really must say Ido not follow you. It is certainly under the responsibility of all the Prime Ministers of the Empire. Sir WILFRID LAURIER : How will they control it when you are in South Africa, and I am in Canada ? Dr. JAMESON : That has to be gone into; but, as a matter of fact, on the spot here it would be controlled by the Prime Minister here as representing all the Prime Ministers of the Empire. As to details, all the Prime Ministers of the Empire would be in communication. Sir WILFRID LAURIER : So long as we are in England it is all right, but if you have a secretarial staff which remains here when you, I, and everybody else goes back to his own country, who is to control and direct that body in the meantime ? Dr. JAMESON : For the third time I answer, the Prime Minister of England. Sir WILFRID LAURIER : If you say it is to be under the direct control of the Prime Minister here, 1 can understand it. Then it is under the direct responsibility of the Prime Minister of England, who is to direct it. Dr. JAMESON : I say he is to direct it. Sir WILFRID LAURIER : That is a matter for debate. Dr. JAMESON : The other point you asked me about was whether it should be under, or away from, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, but I say " no," not under the Secretary of State, but the Prime Minister of England as representing all the Prime Ministers. Sir WILFRID LAURIER : I understood from the moment it was placed before us by the despatch of Mr. Lyttelton, that the staff was to be an independent body here, and under nobody's control, to represent nominally the Colonial Governments, but practically to be so far away from them as to be virtually independent of that control. Lord Elgin proposes that it should

Third Day. IK April 1907.

I'Yture Constitution or THE ( 'osference. (Dr. Jameson.)