The West Indies : Their Common Interest and, Imperial Aim. 341 



Central Council Needed. 

 In fact, when we look forward a stage, and see the logical outcome 

 of West Indian development, we must realise that we shall sooner or later 

 need a head, as I have said, for the body for which we are creating limbs, 

 and that such a Council will be necessary for us both in local West Indian 

 affairs and in enabling us to take our proper place in the Councils of the 

 Empire. The attitude of the British Government on this point has never 

 wavered from 1876, when Lord Carnarvon in speaking of the West Indies 

 stated that " Her Majesty's Government could not proceed with any 

 measure of Federation except on the spontaneous request of each Legis- 

 lature concerned,*' to 1912, when Mr. Harcourt stated in the House of 

 Commons that " Any scheme which meets with the general approval of 

 the communities concerned will command my most attentive considera- 

 tion."' Therefore the matter is entirely in our hands. 



And now I have finished. I have endeavoured not to dogmatise, 

 but rather to suggest matter for your thought. For it is only by the 

 consideration of these subjects, by the thinking men of the colonies and 

 by their ventilation in the press — and we have a press here which has 

 already given proof of its desire to investigate them— that public opinion 

 can be formed. Let us consider all these matters, firstly, from the point 

 of view of our own material welfare — how far we may benefit by inde- 

 pendence, by isolation, how far by working with our neighbours in the 

 Common Interest, to the Common Good. But also let us remember, 

 although I have purposely avoided touching on it, that the cord of senti- 

 ment is at least co-equal with that of material welfare. For we are all 

 of us citizens of Empire, whether we reside here or have interests here 

 or are here only until we are translated to higher spheres of duty else- 

 where, and in working for the colony's good we should strive to do so 

 not only for its immediate and local benefit but also that it may develop 

 step by step, in conjunction with its sister colonies of the West Indies 

 until it eventually takes its rightful place in the wider Imperial scheme — 

 a place not as great as that of the self-governing Dominions, but one 

 nevertheless of which we need not be ashamed. 



If then the stone that we can build into the edifice of Empire be 

 only a small one, yet let us see that it be well and truly laid, and so may 

 we the more worthily echo the prayer which becomes increasingly justi- 

 fied as the years roll on : 



" May He who hath built up this Britannic Empire to a glorious 

 and enviable height, with all her daughter lands about her. stay 

 us in this felicity." 



SIR WALTER EGERTON ON WEST INDIAN UNIFICATION. 



In the course of the discussion which followed Mr. Davson's address 

 His Excellency Sir Walter Egerton said he was much relieved, in listening 

 to Mr. Davson's lecture, to find that he fully realised the very great diffi- 

 culties that attended Federation of the West Indies. He did not think 



