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Ith Bay. Imperial Appeal Court. (12 June, 1911. There were also present : Lord Lucas, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Colonies; Sir Francis Hopwood, G.C.M.G., X.C.8., Permanent Under Secretary of State for the Colonies; Sir C. P. Lucas, K.C.M.G., C.8., Assistant Under Secretary of State for the Colonies; Mr. J. S. Eisley, Legal Adviser, Colonial Office; Sir Almeric FitzEoy, X.C.V.0., Clerk of the Privy Council; Mr. C. J:I. L. Neish, Registrar of the Privy Council; Mr. W. Reeve Wallace, Chief Clerk, Judicial Committee of the Privy Council; Mr. Atlee A. Hunt, C.M.G., Secretary to the Department of External Affairs, Commonwealth of Australia; and Private Secretaries to Members of the Conference.

Australia: — " That it is desirable that the judicial functions in regard to the Dominions now exercised by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council should be vested in an Imperial Appeal Court, which should also be the final Court of Appeal for Great Britain and Ireland." New Zealand :— " That it has now become evident, considering the growth of Population, the diversity of laws enacted, and the differing public policies affecting legal interpretation in His Majesty's overseas Dominions, that no Imperial Court of Appeal can be satisfactory which does not include judicial representatives of these overseas Dominions." The CHAIRMAN : The Prime Minister, I hope, will be here in a few moments, but there is no reason why we should not begin, and I will ask Mr. Fisher to move the resolution. Mr. FISHER : Mr. Harcourt, the motion is : " That it is desirable that the judicial functions in regard to the Dominions now exercised by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council should be vested in an Imperial Appeal Court, which should also be the final court for Great Britain and Ireland." The idea underlying this proposal is that there ought to be one Appellate Court for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the oversea Dominions. The constitution of that court we do not propose to go into at the present time; it is the subject of a motion by the sister Dominion of New Zealand how that court is to be constituted. We wish to advance our views that it would be advisable to have a court to which all the cases could be submitted for final decision, indeed, that is the whole case. I would ask my friend the Minister of External Affairs, Mr. Batchelor, to give some further reasons why we think it desirable that should be so. Mr. BATCHELOR : Mr. Haccourt, the present position is that there are two courts of final appeal within the Empire, one for the Crown Colonies and India and the oversea Dominions, and the other the House of Lords for the United Kingdom. This seems to be an anomalous position which ought not to be continued in an Empire such as ours. At this point the President took the Chair. Mr. BATCHELOR : I was speaking on our resolution for an Imperial Appeal Court, and I was just mentioning that the present position is distinctly anomalous, it seems to me, and unless there are some very practical difficulties in the way of having one appeal court for the whole Empire, one court in which the last word is said, that system ought not to be continued if it can be avoided. E aving two final courts of appeal, I think it will be admitted, has previously