A.—s

91

Fourth Day. 20 April 1907.

is merely that this work should be carried out by means of a portion of the staff under the direction of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, which shall be charged with the duty of whatever work may be allotted. The proposal for a secretariat was a proposal for a body independent of this or any other department. It was to be a kind of joint and several department under the control of the Prime Minister of Great Britain. As such, the word " secretariat" was necessary, in order to make it quite clear that there was no intention of creating a body with any authority other than to perform the necessary secretarial, statistical, and other w T ork cast upon it by the Conference or by some of the Governments represented. That was specially necessary to meet Sir Wilfrid Laurier's criticism, but under the present circumstances that proposal has entirely disappeared. This proposal is nothing like it. The present project is that there shall be a portion of the Colonial Office, a distinct division, not exactly set apart, which is to deal with us Consequently the former title appears to me to be no longer appropriate. My own suggestion is that we should now indicate what is intended, and it is for you_my Lord, to say what is intended. CHAIRMAN : I did not mean to go into further details, for the reasons I gave at the former meeting, but I may just say that in my own mind I had intended to go a little more towards meeting you than you have expressed. Our practice in this office hitherto has been to select gentlemen from our staff who we thought, and 1 think quite rightly, were well qualified to prepare the business for the Conference, and to act as its secretaries. What we have in our minds to carry out, and hope to be able to carry out in the future, is that we should appoint a gentleman on our staff to be the secretary for the Conference, not for one Conference only, but to continue the business as a member of the staff of the office and in a division of the office, as I said before, but that being his specific duty, thereby focussingall the business in the way which I think the members of the Conference in their various resolutions expressed the desire it should be. That is what we hope to do, and that is the reason we use the expression " secretarial staff." You quite understand, I think, that we can make that arrangement without interfering with the responsibility or organization of the office, but still in such a manner, I think, so far as it is capable of being done within the walls of the office, as to meet the wishes that the other members of the Conference have expressed. That is the meaning of the expression. I have no objection to one form or the other, because we can do it either way. Mr. DEAKIN : Have you any objection then to substituting " A por- " tion of the staff under the direction of the Secretary of State for the " Colonies which shall be charged with the duty '"' ? I think it more correctly expresses it. Sir JOSEPH WARD : I think it is better to leave it as it stands. Dr. JAMESON : Do not you think that the further explanation which the Secretary of State has made shows that he is anxious to meet, as far as possible, our extreme views expressed the other day. Mr. F. R. MOOR : Not extreme, but advanced. Dr. JAMESON : Advanced is better. It is better to leave the word in as foreshadowing what is coming at the next Conference to meet our views expressed the other day. I should like to see it remain.

Future Constitution of THE ( '(INFERENCE. (Mr. Deakin.)