483 



an Imperial Navy acting as a single unit, was also notably forwarded by the visit to 

 England of the Canadian Premier, Mr. Borden, with other Canadian ministers, in 

 1912, for the purpose of discussing the whole subject with the home government and 

 the Committee of Imperial Defence. The public speeches made by Mr. Borden and 

 his colleagues during this visit, and the references made to it by Mr. Asquith in the 

 House of Commons, showed that, in this department of administrative policy at any 

 rate, the goal of Imperial federation was appreciably nearer. 



In connection with the Imperial Conference of 1911 it may also be noted that reso- 

 lutions were adopted by it in favour of: (i) an Imperial Naturalisation Act, based on a 

 other ques- scneme to be agreed upon, but still undefined, for conferring an uniform 

 tionsatthe British citizenship throughout the Empire, (2) the appointment (carried 

 ou ^ ^ n IQI2 ) f a Royal Commission, representing the whole Empire, to 

 investigate and report on its natural resources, and the possibility of their 

 development, (3) the establishment of a chain o f British State-owned wireless telegraphic 

 stations within the Empire (proposed under the Marconi agreement of 1912). A some- 

 what elaborate scheme proposed by Sir Joseph Ward for setting up an Imperial House 

 of Representatives for Defence, and an Imperial Council of State, was withdrawn by him, 

 after both Mr. Asquith and various Colonial ministers had criticised it adversely. 



///. Domestic Politics. 



The history of domestic British politics in 1911 and 1912 was dominated by the 

 state of the parties resulting from the general election which was precipitated 



in December 1910 when the private conference between the Liberal and 

 Parliament. Unionist leaders on the constitutional crisis broke down. 1 On 'the eve of 



the election, at a great meeting in the Albert Hall, Mr. Balfour introduced 

 a new issue on the Unionist side by advocating a Referendum on great constitutional 

 questions, and declaring that he was prepared to refer Tariff Reform to the people by 

 this method if the other side would do the same for Irish Home Rule. It was believed 

 in some Unionist quarters that this declaration in favour of a Referendum on Tariff 

 Reform (which was generally discussed without any question of its depending on the 

 willingness of the Government to adopt the Referendum for Home Rule) would help to 

 secure support among Unionist critics of the Tariff Reform policy; but it came too late 

 in the day for that purpose, and was not much to the taste of the more ardent Tariff 

 Reformers. Mr. Austen Chamberlain, for one, at once expressed his view of the diffi- 

 culty of taking a Referendum on a question of finance; and after the elections the idea 

 of qualifying the Tariff Reform issue by coupling it with a pledge not to proceed without 

 a Referendum practically disappeared from the Unionist platform, though suggestions 

 for its revival were occasionally made by Unionists who thought Tariff Reform un- 

 popular. 2 Its failure for electioneering purposes helped indeed to increase the criticism 

 which was already rife in certain Unionist circles against Mr. Balfour's leadership. On 

 the other hand the use of the Referendum for putting large constitutional changes before 

 the electorate, and for thus solving the problem of conflicts between the two Houses of 

 Parliament, was increasingly advocated on the Unionist side. A bill for this purpose, 

 brought by Lord Balfour of Burleigh before the House of Lords in March 1911, made 

 no actual headway, but the proposal, in one shape or another, became part of the 

 Unionist alternative to the Parliament Bill. The Government, on their side, concen- 

 trated all their efforts on an appeal to the electorate to give them a majority for the 

 Parliament Bill, as an : essential preliminary to any Liberal legislation; and the result 

 showed that the short interval since the general election of January 1910 had made 

 practically no difference in the balance of party power. The distribution of seats, and 



1 See E. B. xx, 846, 847. 



2 On November 14, 1912, at the meeting of the National Unionist Association in the 

 Albert Hall, at which Mr. Bonar Law and Lord Lansdowne both spoke, Lord Lansdowne 

 specifically declared that the Unionist leaders regarded the proposal for a Referendum on 

 Tariff Reform as abandoned. But see further below, ad fin. 



