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Fourth Day. 20 April 1907,

put forward already; perhaps it is a little too early to bring it forward, but no doubt it may grow and perhaps Dr. Smartt is quite right to throw it out as a consideration to think of for the next Conference on that basis. Mr. HALDANE : It is one of these things which may well belong to a very immediate future —not far off —but 1 am now going to read from the Bill which comes up before Parliament for the final stage of the second reading debate on Tuesday. " Any part of the Territorial Force " —which is the second line force, which corresponds to the Imperial second line we are discussing- the local forces all round —" shall be liable to serve in any part of the " United Kingdom, but no part of the Territorial Force shall be carried or " ordered to go out of the United Kingdom." Now we have this by way of proviso. " Provided that it shall be lawful for His Majesty, if he thinks fit to accept the offer of any body of men of the Territorial Force, signifying " through their commanding officer, «to subject themselves to the liability " {a) to serve in any place outside the United Kingdom; or {b) to be called " out for actual military- service for the purpose of defence in such places " in the United Kingdom as may be specified in their agreement, whether " the Territorial Force is embodied or not," and it goes on to say if they make the offer, and it is accepted, that offer measures their liability, and nobody is to be compelled to make such an offer, except by his own consent, with the matter carefully explained to him. That was the utmost we felt we could go to in the organization of the second line, and it is in effect the change which was made in our Militia xYct towards the end of the Peninsular War. We were driven to rely on the militia towards the end of the Peninsular War, and the substance of this clause was introduced as a modification of our Militia Act. However, I gather that you all, in Canada, in Australia, and in New Zealand, are very much in the same position with regard to that. That is very much the measure of what we want to do, and if you could get that amount of latitude that would enable you to organize your second line so that such a voluntary offer could be provided for and accepted, 1 take it that it would be a step on, Sir Frederick. I rather gather that you have some legislation you might have to modify in some slight degree to meet that, but whether it is so or not, that is a matter which, as we have said, can stand. If the Conference is agreeable, as I think it is, to this resolution about the General Staff, I think it is highly desirable that we should pass it; there may be amendments upon it, of course, but I was going to suggest this, that if we do pass it, I hope the thing will not stop there. My office will be ready to take up the details of things and, although we say in the beginning, " That this Conference, without wishing to commit to immediate action any of the Governments represented," I hope the opportunity may be taken to follow up all these things we have discussed to-day. Sir Neville Lyttelton and the rest of us will put aside all other engagements; we know you are here and available only for about three weeks more and the most immediate duty we could fulfil would be to meet and confer with you and work these things out, so that I hope, if the substance of this resolution is agreed to, we may be able to take some immediate action in fixing in our minds the precise way to give effect to it and the other things we have discussed to-day. Sir FREDERICK BORDEN : Would it be possible, Mr. Haldane, to modify this resolution —I have not thought of the form of words, but in some wav by which we would agree to the idea of establishing General Staffs in each of the Dominions beyond the Seas, in each of our countries, and then go on as you put it so that these staffs should be interchangeable with each other, because I think it is not only desirable that there should be exchange between the General Staff and any one of the Colonies,

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