615

A—s

Then there is the further set of circumstances hardly touched upon by that Resolution which relates to the Colonial Office. There remains to be mentioned the new Secretariat which we conceived as a kind of Imperial office, charged with knowledge of and responsibility for all the great selfgoverning Dominions, and concerned with the oversight of a great variety of Imperial interests. These might be concentrated in such a Secretariat, instead of being, as they now are, divided over several departments in this country, to which would be added other questions hardly yet associated. I do not propose to do more than recapitulate some of the more familiar. I do not know, my Lord, in shaping a departmental Secretariat, how far you will take this into your consideration; but I hope you will weigh the necessity of keeping our Dominions in closer touch with external questions that particularly affect them, even when they may not be coming forward for immediate treatment ? I might mention the case of Alaska in regard to Canada, and the New Hebrides and Pacific interests in our case; and of Delagoa Bay in South Africa. These have arisen in the past. But it is easy to see, being wise after the event, how much better qualified the Empire would have been for consistent action in regard to those matters, if they had been objects of study before the crisis arose, or if, as and when the crisis arose, Canada, Australia, or South Africa or all of them had been kept informed of the state of those problems and the difficulties that had to be encountered in settling them. I might develop these possibilities at great length, but the case appears to me to be plain enough as it stands. There are many matters still at issue of deep interest to Canada, for instance, or South Africa, upon which this office possesses or can obtain much knowledge, which would be of great value to Canada or South Africa as the case might be. Part of it would be confidential; but to have these problems kept in view, and to have them from time to time presented to us in their new phases, would save many possible misunderstandings, and enable proposals to be made from the Dominion affected which might often be useful to the Colonial Office. The next suggestions were summarised a short time ago in an article by Mr. Drage in the " Fortnightly Review," in which he pointed out that a study of other colonial systems generally, first of all. and then in regard to a particular problem or problems might be of much use. He said that the French in Northern Africa, the Germans in Eastern Africa, and the United States in the Philippines were conducting a number of very interesting experiments. Some of those, it occurs to me, are climatic, and some relate to health. Those, Tarn aware, the Colonial Office has, to a considerable extent, dealt with, but others relate to their products and their methods of government, upon which valuable information could be found. Foreign blue books, it is said, are not laid as freely under contribution in this regard—the French, Germany and Italians are mentioned in particular —as they might well be. T omitted to mention that among the ouestions noon which, for instance, it would be a great gain if from time to time we were kept in touch with such proposals as were lately made, in regard to important action in Madeira, and similar tendencies elsewhere, portending to the acouisitinn of territory by other Powers. We have lately been brought face to face with ourselves, with our want of knowledge of Treaty obligations, of how far we are really bound as Dominions, and how far we have been committed. T am aware that steps are bein<r token to mitigate this. But that experience suggests other directions in which the same course can be followed with advantage. Of course, in trade affairs, there are a great variety of directions in which the article, to which T have referred, points out our needs. For instance. Mr. Drage says there is at present no common statistical method, no common statistical year, no

Fifteenth Day. 14 May 1907.

Interchange .if Permanent Staff. (Mr. Deakin.)