The second department of the Colonial Office, which
will be styled the Colonial or Crown Colonies Department,
will deal with all the administrative and political work of the Crown Colonies and Protectorates which forms a great and growing charge ; and the third, or General Department, will be also the Legal Department, and,in addition to the general routine business of the office, which is now transacted by it, and to all personal questions arising in the Crown Colonies, will deal with various matters common to all the Crown Colonies—such as currency, banking, postal and telegraph matters, education, medical and sanitary questions, pensions, patronage, and so forth. In connection more especially with this Department four standing committees will be established, viz., a Patronage and Promotions Committee, a Railway and Financial Committee, a Concessions Committee, and a Pensions Committee.
7. The permanent staff of the Colonial Office includes at the head of the office the Permanent Under-Secretary of State and four Assistant Under-Secretaries. The Permanent Under-Secretary of State will remain as now the permanent head of the whole office and the principal adviser of the Secretary of State. The four Assistant Under-Secretaries will be allotted as follows, Mr. Antrobus will take control of the Crown Colonies Department with its very heavy and important work. Mr. Cox will have control of the General Department; he will as a rule preside over the Standing Committees ; and, as Lewal Adviser, his services will, as now, be utilized in connexion with all the departments. The Dominions Department will be under the control of the Se-
nior Assistant Under-Secretary. Mr. Lucas, and with him
will be associated Mr. Just, the junior Assistant Under-Secretary,whom I have nominated to be Permanent Secretary to the Imperial Conference. Mr. Lucas's long experience of Colonial administration in this office is supplemented by special knowledge of emigration questions: and he will bring to bear upon his new duties many years” close study of Colonial history. Your Ministers need not be reminded that Mr. Just was one of the Joint Secretaries to the late Conference : he has served in the Colonial Office since 1878, acted as Assistant Secretary to the first Colonial Conference in 1887, and has had personal experience of South Africa. He is, in my opinion, well qualified for the important post to which I have appointed, him, and I am confident that on his part and on the part of those who will assist him every effort will be made to carry out the work of the Secretariat with efficiency and success.
8. Such is an outline of my proposals for re-arranging the work of the Colonial Office. They are made in the strong desire to promote the interests of all parts of the Empire and to produce efficient and sympathetic treatment of the manifold questions that arise. 1 ask for, and I am confident that
[ shall receive, cordial co-operation from all concerned.
I have the honour to be, My Lord, Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, ELGIN.
Enclosure.
« Haxsarp », Vo. CLXXXI, pp. 1067-1071.
Business or SELr-GovERNING CoLoNiEs.
Tue Earc or Jersey : I desire to askthe noble Earl the Se-
cretary of State for the Colonies the Question which appears :
in my name, viz. ;
« If he is in a position to communicate to the House the steps for the better ordering of the business of the Self-Governing Colonies, and of the Imperial Conferences which at the recent Conference he stated to be in contemplation. »
In asking this Question, I wil only say that at the recent Conference a strong desire was expressed that there should be some re-arrangement at the Colonial Office which would enable that Office to be in closer touch with the Self-Governing Colonies, and also to provide for the work of the Imperial Conferences. That matter was left with the noble Earl, the Secretary of State. It could not be left in better hands.
The Secrerary or STATE For Tue CoLontes (The Earl of Elgin) : Ï need not say that I shall be as succinct as possible at this hour of the night. But, as the noble Earl has said, this is a matter which has attracted a good deal of attention, not only in this country, but also in the Colonies, and I should like, as I am now able to do, to give some explanation as to the steps which we propose to take. The first resoqution which-was adopted by the late Conference had in it
a passage which I desire to quote. It said,
dc 20) PAS
« That it is desirable to establish a system by which the several Governments represented shall be kept informed during the periods between the Conferences in regard to matters which have been or may be subjects for discussion, by means of a permanent secretarial staff, charged, under the direction of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, with the duty of obtaining information for the use of the Conference, of attending to its resolutions, and of conducting correspondence on mat-
ters relating to its affairs. »
This proposal was submitted by myself on behalf of His Majesty's Government, and therefore what I have to do is to say how I propose to redeem the promise which I then gave. It will be remembered that there were other proposals before the Conference on this subject. There were resolutions which had been prepared by the Colonies of Australia and New Zealand and the Cape, and the propositions embodied in them were supported by the representatives of those Colonies at the Conference. They suggested the appointment of a Secretariat, independent of the Colonial Office, by the Conference itself. To that arrangement His Majestys Government took exception on the ground that it was entirely inconsistent with the Ministerial responsibility which exists, not only in this country, but also in each and every Colony which enjoys self-sovernment, and we were supported in that view by several members of the Conference, and espe-
cially by the Prime Minister of Canada, Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier speaks with so much authority and dis-
tinctness that I desire to give his opinion in his own words.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier said,
« I am quite satisfied upon the principle conceded, that what is done is to be done on direct responsibility. That is the only subject, as originally proposed, to which I demurred, because it seemed to be the creation of an independent body. The moment it is recognised here that it is to be under direct responsibility, I am satisfied. I am quite prepared to accept the new principle, but I would not like to commit myself immediately to the drafting of the resolution, which perhaps may be
improved, »
Now, my Lords, I cannot refer to any division list — we fortunately did not take many formal divisions at the Conference — but the fact remains that though the representatives of the Colonies to which I have referred supported their own propositions, the resolution which [ have quoted was finally adopted without a dissentient voice. I am obliged, however, to trouble the House with another quotation, because the concise language of the resolution itself might otherwise not be so clearly understood. In the course of the discussion I endeavoured to remove, so far as I could, any ambiguity as to the intentions of His Majesty’s Government.
On the first day I defined our position as follows. I said.
« If you accept our proposition that we should with
Ministerial responsibility provide the link which you
desire, and which we think you reasonably desire, between Conference and Conference, you should allow us a free hand in other respects. . The proposition which [put forward on my own responsibility as Secretar y of State for the Colonies, but with the assent of my colleagues, and 1 hope therefore that the Conference will give it at least as favourable consideration as possible..... We will endeavour, I think we shall succeed, to so separate the departments of this office that you will have in the office in the form which we shall present it to you, a distinct division dealing with the affairs of the responsible governed Colonies. I will not say it will be exactly apart, because there is, and must be, at the head,at any rate, a connecting link between the several parts of any office, but there will be one division which you will feel will be concerned with the business of all the self-governing Colonies, and
not directiy with that of the Crown Colonies. »
On the second day I found it necessary to add a further
explanation, and I said —-
« What we have in our minds to carry out and hope to be able to carry out in the future, is that we should appoint a gentleman on our staffto be the secretary for the Conference, not for one Conference only,but to continue the business as a member of the staff of the office and in a division of the office, as I said before, but that being his specific duty, thereby focussing all the business in the way which I think the members of the Con-
CAHU 41
ference in their various Resolutions expressed the desire it should be, That is what we hope to do, and that is the reason we use the expression « secretarial staif ». You quite understand, I think, that we can make that arrangement without interfering with the responsibility or organisation of the office, but still in such a manner, I think, so far as it is capable of being done within the walls of the office, as to meet the wishes that the other members of the Conference have expressed. That is the
meaning of the expression. »
Upon that Sir Wilfrid Laurier remarked —
« I do not care how it is expressed, so long asit is on Ministerial responsibility, that is the only thing I attach
importance to. »
I think ; therefore, my Lords, [ have made it quite clear that the idea of an independent body was not entertained by the Conference, and in the second place that the idea of a scheme within the walls and under the responsibility of the Colonial Office was fully before the Conference and was entertained. That being so, the only scheme which I can be expected to lay before your Lordships this evening is one on those lines. I shall not detain the House by any description of the organisation of the Colonial Office as it is now. Ît may suffice to say that the geographical divisions into which it was, 1 think, originally divided have become somewhat obscured by the gradual accretions of spheres of
duty in many parts of the world, andit is not very easy now
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