Having myself been at the Colonial Office at a particularly interesting and important period in the history of the Empire, and having seen a certain amount of the Dominions and Colonies, there are one or two points I should like to raise on this important question. The emptiness of the Liberal benches bears out all that is said about the remarkable interest in the Empire that has always been associated with that body! There is one point that does need consideration by His Majesty's Government and something that should be considered when the Imperial Conference meets, and that is as regards foreign policy. In this matter we have drifted ever since the good days—from that point of view—of the War. Although we have a terror of the word "machinery" I do hope the possibilities of doing something will be investigated. At the present moment existing machinery has not, I believe, been carried out as fully as it might have been. I believe it was agreed that High Commissioners should attend the meetings of the Cabinet when matters of external interest—foreign, Imperial, or otherwise—were under discussion. Can the Secretary of State say how often, in fact, the High Commissioners have been invited to attend meetings of the Cabinet when matters of this sort have been under discussion? It is not the ideal way, it is a poor way; but it should be taken advantage of as something that is ready to hand. In the last few years since the War we have acted on the basis —and it has been put forward by so good an Imperialist as the present Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs—of "keeping the Dominions informed." It does not seem to me that we shall get over our difficulties by methods of that sort. The Dominions should have greater initiative than being merely kept in- formed. The matter came to a head at the time of the Lausanne Treaty and end less complications were patched up in the way in which Imperial difficulties always are patched up after a certain amount of wrangling. The same system prevailed with the Protocol and Locarno Pact. The Dominions should be vitally concerned in these decision and should take a share in them.

The Australian Government have taken a step in this direction by setting up a Secretariat, and I think it might be considered by the other Governments whether it would serve their interests. I think they could develop that line by having a Minister to come over, officially, periodically. It would he valuable not only to themselves but also to our Foreign Office in this country. The Dominions quite rightly and naturally feel that their High Commissioners, who are detached from their own countries for a long time, cannot be considered representative of, and capable of interpreting, their own countries. It is an important question, because we saw, both at the time of the Protocol and the Pact, the difficulty of the Dominions. Though no doubt they took quite a right line from the point of view of the Empire, they could not realise, nor should they be expected to realise, the domestic questions that concern ourselves. By an unfortunate curse of fate, we are in Europe, and we must put up with being involved in European affairs. I am perfectly certain that if the Dominions took a share in framing our foreign policy, they would realise how important a concern European affairs are for us. I think it is a, matter for us to raise on our own responsibility whether the Dominions cannot he brought in so that they can understand our point of view in domestic matters of this sort, which are life and death to us, and which are really bound to open up and extend more and more. This might well be done by encouraging the people of our Dominions to enter the Diplomatic Service and the service of the Foreign Office. It is advantageous to get fresh ideas in. One of the curses of Civil Service administration in this country, though it is probably the finest in the world, is that it does tend to be narrowed too much to type. It would be admirable if we had Canadians and Australians and others from our Dominions in the Legations and Embassies. It would be a splendid thing to have a Canadian, Australian or someone from one of our other Dominions as an Ambassador, and, preferably, in some place where their own interests were not great, so as to exemplify to the world our Empire solidarity.