621

A.—s

Mr. DEAKIN : If I had the Hansard of my Parliament here I could show you many occasions on which I have defended the action of this Office and this Government, in some cases when I did not at all agree with it, I doubt if you will find an instance on which I have criticised this Office there with the frankness I have shown here.

Fifteenth Day. 14 May 1907.

Interchange of Permanent Staff.

THANKS TO THE EARL OF ELGIN. Sir WILFRID LAURIER : I have to propose a resolution. It is in recognition of the services rendered to us by Lord Elgin as Chairman, and I will move it : " The members of this Conference, representing the " self-governing Colonies, desire, before they separate, to convey to Lord " Elgin their warm and sincere appreciation of the manner in which he " has presided over their deliberations, as well as of the many courtesies " which they have received from him; they desire also to put on record " the deep sense of gratitude which they feel for the generous hospitality " which has been extended to them by the Government and people of the " United Kingdom." Mr. DEAKIN : I have very great pleasure in seconding that. Sir JOSEPH WARD : Lord Elgin, I wish to say I very heartily endorse the sentiments contained in the resolution, and I want to express my personal appreciation of the courtesy extended to me as the representative of the Colony of New Zealand, both by yourself and your colleagues at this table, and the whole of your staff, and I hope I may have the opportunity in the future of seeing you all either out in New Zealand or else here. Igo away with very great regret from London, and that regret has been deepened by the boundless hospitality and kindness which has been extended to me on all sides, which has made a great impression on my mind as showing the way in which the people of Old England treat their sons from th? Colonies. CHAIRMAN : I am much obliged, Sir Joseph Ward, for what you have said, and to Sir Wilfrid Laurier for the motion he has put. I should just like to say this : that I have had the ambition throughout this Conference of endeavouring to make the Conference work as I think it should work. I ventured to point out at the beginning of the Conference that we had laid before you papers, not merely Colonial Office papers, but papers prepared by all departments of His Majesty's Government. We have done more than that. We have had representatives of His Majesty's Government present at this Conference, and I find that no less than 12 have been present and taken part in the deliberations. Of course, I may take this credit to myself, that I had to arrange that before the Conference met, and it was satisfactory to me to find that it was in accordance with the first resolution which this Conference passed, namely, that what they desired was that these Conferences should be conferences between Government and Governments. That is the principle on which I endeavoured to arrange the Conference, and in which I think it has been carried out. Of course it does, in a sense, mean that the Secretary for the Colonies, if he is sitting in the chair, has not necessarily to argue the different points that come before the Conference. I do not know that he ever did do so. But at any rate, I have endeavoured to study the convenience of the members of the Conference and I am very grateful to those who have said that they have found that I have done so. Somebody has to do that. I think the Secretary of State for the Colonies, under all the circum-

Resolution XXL p. x.

80—A. 5.