

\T BUITAIN AND IKMLAND. 



her private life, and in h life an example 



to*.- 



well understood ti ale tasks 



. fail to a constitutional monarch to perform 

 that the Constitution of 

 her reign been able to adapt it^ if. without fr 

 and v r\iug needs of this 



great communr ualM m. 



:ress anl ; take 



part in thejubiiee. holding, a* Mr. Dillon said, that 

 -cry item of the catalogue of the great ad- 

 vances made by the |M,pulutions ,,f (iivat Britain 

 and the colonies since her Majesty came to the 

 throne Ireland has gone back and not progressed," 

 and. af*plain.-d b\ ' Ucdmoml. " in almost 

 one of the sixty years of the reign then- had 

 some coercion act for the suspension of trial by 

 (he suppression of freedom of sp r ,-ch or the 

 freed*'! 1 1 of t)u> press, or the abrogation of some 

 part of the Constitution under which Ireland was 

 - .- ; -. . ' .." " 



The jubilee celebrations lasted over the month. 

 In the naval review of June 26 at Spit head 17:! 

 British war vessels were arranged in 4 lines, each 

 about 5 miles in length. On July 1 there was a ro- 

 of troops at Aldershot. in whi. 

 and men, 5,029 horses, and 5? guns paraded. 

 Relations with the < olonics. T),,. p,-, 



foundland. N.-w South \Vali-s. Vic- 

 toria, Queensland. .South Australia, Tasmania. N.-w 

 Zealand, Western Australia, Cape Colony, and Natal, 

 representing all the self-governing colonies, went 

 gland to take part in the jubilee celebrations 

 and for an informal discussion of subjects of inter- 

 est to the empire with the Minister or the Colonies 

 in I Downing Street. The Parliament of Cape Col- 

 ony had in advance empowered Sir (ion Ion Sprigg 

 r into tentative negotiations regarding a con- 

 tribution of the colony toward the imperial navy. 

 Vilfrid Laurier had proposals to offer from 

 Canada of preferential trade with the mother coun- 

 try. Australia had, in the first instance, offered a 



bution in aid of the British navy. b, 

 taking her full share of her military defenses. 



The Prime Ministers assembled at the Colonial 

 Office on June 24. Mr. Chamberlain broached tin- 

 subject of a closer political and commercial union 

 looking toward imperial federation. He sugi: 

 a great council of the empire, to which the n>; 

 should send representative, plenipotentiaries, which 

 mijrht slowly grow into a federal council. He was 

 anxious to increase the authority of the Judicial 

 :it tee of the Privy Council. " To this end t la- 

 ired the appointment as Privy 

 "f distinguished judges from the courts 

 ttiada, Australia, an : :n< a. He pro- 



posed that, instead of having in this place judges 



ssnrlee in the <-o|onic*. the colonial 

 ernments should appoint and maintain permanent - 

 Knglnnd judges to assist in the trial of colo- 

 nial CAW' brought before the Privy < ..i:n<il on 

 apprat. He desired particularly to hear from the 

 colonial Premier! th-ir views as to what contribu- 

 -H would bo willing to make in ord-r 

 to establish the principle of their participation in 

 UH of th,. empire. As regards the 

 military defenses, t); f, . -mmitt.-e 



- hail accomplished a great improvement. 

 with the assistance of the colonies; but the orj 



ditarr resources of the colonies was 

 im[*>rfect, and it wjm desirable to |, ; . 

 scheme of common defense against any pi 

 enemy, such an already had been pr -pared in tin- 

 case of some of the colonies. Uniformity of arms 

 and eo ( uipm i nt. s,,m.- < ntral provision for stores, 

 and facilities fort lie military instruction of the local 

 forces might be arranged to the advantage of the 



. i the 



interohangeftbilitj of mihtar\ \\ tlie 



,es and the mother country and ainoiiir the 



. If colonial regiments \\ iv to take 



up their |.. h the British army for at lea>t 



a year at a time and liriti>h regiments in i xdian^c 



-in.-, the colonial 1 



woiil<l learn the drill, the di-< i pi inc. and the main MI - 

 .I 1>\ tin- regular Ilritish army. The 



future commercial n D Bnfflaod and 



her colonies lie hoped t.. See take the>liape of a 

 Zulli; i , , ,. 1 i. VlOtl '1 .'in \|>reion of opinion a* 

 to the desirability of dei.ouiii -HILT commercial 



-|K-cially those with (i.rmanv and Belgium, 

 .standing in the way of preferential tradi 



inent> with the col :man and 



had already pi >in-t the propo>eil prefer- 



ential treatment of British ,u r ..... Ul>y<'anada. lie 

 mentioned. furth-r. the Mil.j. els of the I'a.-ilic calile. 

 imperial penn\ and a common commci- 



OOde, and protest, -il npiinM the alien immi- 



li bills excluding All Of the Indian su: 

 of the (Juccn on account of their color, ami 

 all Asiatics. 



The commercial relations of the I'D;- 

 dom and the self-piverning coloiii- 

 sidered and the f,llowing roolut i.-n- weW unan- 

 imoiislv adopted : 



1. That the Premiers of ll: .mint; c,-l- 



<'iii^ unanimously and earm-Mly recommend the 

 denunciation, at the earliest ci>n\i-nienl tinn-. of 

 any treaties which now hamper the commercial re- 

 lations between (ireat Britain ami her co|. 



That in the hope of improving t lie trade r la- 



between the mother country and the OOll 



the Premiers j. resent undertake t'o confer with their 

 colleagues with a view to seeing whether such are- 



suit can be properly secured by a preference p\eli by 



the colonies to the products of the I'nited Kingdom. 



The Briti-li (iovrrnmeiit had already decid- 

 ^'i\e effect to the first of tin-, resolutions by noti- 

 fying to the governments concerned its wish to ter- 

 minate the commercial treaties \\ith (iermany and 

 Belgium, which alone of the existing commercial 

 treaties of the Tinted Kinu'dom wen- a bar to the 

 establishment of preferential tariff relation- In 

 the mother country and the colonies. l-Y-.m .Inly 

 30, IH'JS, therefore," there would be nothing to pre- 

 clude. any action of any of tin- colonies in pursu- 

 ance of the other resolution. Mr. Chamberlain 

 )>armd the Premiers that if any colony should 

 wisli to extend the preferential treatment an 

 to the I'niied Kingdom to any foreign country 

 then tin; most-favored-nation clause in all the com- 

 mercial treaties, to which most of the colon;- 

 parties, could be invoked, and the colony would be 

 bound to ..'ive the same terms to nearly every im- 

 p'-rtant commercial country in the world. This is 

 not applicable to the I'li;' which declined 



to include the British colonies in its most -favored- 

 nation clause with (in-nt Britain. 



<>n the question Of the political relations }' 

 England and the colonies t| H . following resolution! 

 were adop- 



-1. The Prime Ministers here assembled . 

 opinion that the present political rdati"i. 

 the I'nited Kingdom and the self-govcrnitu 



_'-nerally satisfactory under the existing 

 condition of things. 



f opinion that it is desirable, 



whenever and wherev.-r practical... ip to- 



pther under a federal union those colon i> - w hicli 



lucally united. 



awhile, the Premiers are of opinion that 

 uld \M' desirable to hold periodical confei 

 of representative- of the colonie^ and (ireat Britam 

 f<^r tlie discussion of matters of common inter 



