Republic in all parts of the world. Like it, we want stability and peace, on the basis of liberty and justice. Like it, we desire to avoid the growth of armaments, whether in the Pacific or elsewhere, and we rejoice that American opinion should be showing so much earnestness in that direction at the present time. We are ready to discuss with American statesmen any proposal for the limitation of armaments which they may wish to set out, and we can undertake that no such overtures will find a lack of willingness on our part to meet them. In the meantime, we cannot forget that the very life of the United Kingdom, as also of Australia and New Zealand, indeed, the whole Empire, has been built upon sea power—and that sea power is necessarily the basis of the whole Empire's existence. We have, therefore, to look to the measures which our security requires; we aim at nothing more; we cannot possibly be content with less.

I do not propose to deal in any detail with the agenda for this Conference to day. We have no cut-and-dried agenda to present. We will discuss that amongst ourselves. The British Government has been under some suspicion in some quarters of harbouring designs against this gathering as a Conference. We are said to be dissatisfied with the present state of the Empire, and to wish to alter its organization in some revolutionary way. Gentlemen, we are not at all dissatisfied. The British Empire is progressing very satisfactorily from a constitutional standpoint, as well as in other ways. The direct communication between Prime Ministers, established during the War, has, I think, worked well, and we have endeavoured to keep you thoroughly abreast of all important developments in foreign affairs by special messages sent out weekly, or even more frequently when circumstances required. Indeed, at every important Conference either here or on the Continent, one of the first duties I felt I ought to discharge was to send as full and as complete and as accurate an account as I possibly could, not merely of the decisions taken, but of the atmosphere, which counts for so very much. I have invariably, to the best of my ability, sent accounts, some of them of the

most confidential character, which would give to the Dominions even the impressions which we formed, and which gave you information beyond what we could possibly communicate to the press.

Another change, which has taken place since the War, is the decision of the Canadian Government to have a Minister of its own at Washington-a very important development. We have co-operated willingly with that, and we shall welcome a Canadian colleague at Washington as soon as the appointment is made. We shall be glad to have any suggestions that occur to you as to the methods by which the business of the Dominions in London, so far as it passes through our hands, may be transacted with greater dignity and efficiency, though you will all, I think, agree that the Empire owes much to Lord Milner and Lord Long for their services in the Colonial Office during a period of great difficulty and stress.

We shall also welcome any suggestions which you may have to make for associating yourselves more closely with the conduct of foreign relations. Any suggestions which you can make upon that subject we shall be very delighted to hear and discuss. There was a time when Downing Street controlled the Empire; to-day the Empire is in charge of Downing Street. On all matters of common concern we want to know your standpoint, and we want to tell you ours.

I will give you my general conception of the mutual relationship in which we meet. The British Dominions and the Indian Empire, one and all, played a great part in the war for freedom, and probably a greater part than any nation, except the very greatest Powers. When the history of that struggle comes to be written, your exertions side by side with ours will constitute a testimony to British institutions such as no other Empire in history can approach or emulate. In recognition of their services and achievements in the War the British Dominions have now been accepted fully into the comity of nations by the whole world. They are signatories to the Treaty of Versailles and to all the other Treaties of Peace; they are members of the Assembly of the League of Nations, and their

representatives have already attended meetings of the League; in other words, they have achieved full national status, and they now stand beside the United Kingdom as equal partners in the dignities and the responsibilities of the British Commonwealth. If there are any means by which that status can be rendered even clearer to their own communities and to the world at large we shall be glad to have them put forward at this Conference.

India's achievements were also very great. Her soldiers lie with ours in all the theatres of war, and no Britisher can ever forget the gallantry and promptitude with which she sprang forward to the King Emperor's service when war was declared. That is no small tribute both to India and to the Empire of which India is a part. The causes of the War were unknown to India; its theatre in Europe was remote. Yet India stood by her allegiance heart and soul, from the first call to arms, and some of her soldiers are still serving far from their homes and families in the common cause. India's loyalty in that great crisis is eloquent to me of the Empire's success in bridging the civilizations of East and West, in reconciling wide differences of history, of tradition and of race, and in bringing the spirit and the genius of a great Asiatic people into willing co-operation with our own. Important changes have been effected in India this year, and India is making rapid strides towards the control of her own affairs. She has also proved her right to a new status in our councils; that status she gained during the War, and she has maintained it during the peace, and I welcome the representatives of India to our great Council of the Empire to-day. We shall, I feel sure, gain much by the fact that her sentiments and her interests will be interpreted to us here by her own representatives.

I have given you my view of our relationship. May I just remind the Conference of what our unity has meant. The War demonstrated-I might say, revealed to the world, including ourselves, that the British Empire was not an abstraction but a living force to be reckoned with. Who would have believed before the War that the Empire outside Great Britain would,

in an hour of emergency, have raised two millions and more soldiers and sent them to the battlefield to serve the common cause, side by side with the United Kingdom? Even the ardent soul of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, in his most glowing moments, never predicted so impressive a rally to the Flag. The opportune revelation of the reality of the British Empire has, in my judgment, altered the history of the world. Those of us who know-and many if not most of us sitting at this table were here during the most critical hours of the War and sat at this same table-those of us who know how narrow the margin was between victory and defeat, can proclaim without hesitation that without these two million men, that came from outside the United Kingdom, Prussianism would probably have triumphed in the West and the East before American troops arrived on the stage, and Lord Curzon, who is at this moment discussing with M. Briand, the Prime Minister of France, the execution of a victorious Treaty, would have been discussing how best to carry out the humiliating conditions dictated by the triumphant war lords of Germany.

The reign of unbridled force would have been supreme, and this generation would have had to spend its days in interpreting and enduring that calamitous fact in all spheres of human activity and influence. The unregulated unity of the British Empire saved France, Britain and civilization from that catastrophe.

Our present troubles are bad enough. Victory has its cares as well as defeat. But they are ephemeral and will soon be surmounted. Defeat would have reversed the engine of progress, and democracy would have been driven back centuries on its tracks. If I may venture to quote what I said at the Imperial Conference of 1907 when Sir Thomas Smartt and I first met―I think we two and the present Colonial Secretary are the only survivors-I ventured to say, in reference to the Empire:

"We agree with our Colonial comrades of the Dominions that all this unity is worth concerted effort, even if that effort at the outset costs us something. The federation

of free commonwealths is worth making some sacrifice for. One never knows when its strength will be essential to the great cause of human freedom, and that is priceless." I venture to say that that prediction has been gloriously proved by great events.

The British Empire is a saving fact in a very distracted world. It is the most hopeful experiment in human organization which the world has yet seen. It is not so much that it combines men of many races, tongues, traditions and creeds in one system of government. Other Empires have done that, but the British Empire differs from all in one essential respect. It is based not on force but on goodwill and a common understanding. Liberty is its binding principle. Where that principle has not hitherto been applied it is gradually being introduced into the structure.

It is that willing and free association of many nations and peoples which this Conference represents. Think of what we stand for in this room to-day. First of all the long political development of the British Isles, with all its splendours and its pains, the crucible from which the framework of the whole great structure has emerged. Canada, British and French; South Africa, British and Dutch-both now great Dominions whose unity is due to the free and willing combination of two proud races in a single nationhood. Australia and New Zealand, British civilizations both, but planted and developed with a genius of their own by the sheer enterprise and grit of their peoples in the furthest antipodes. India a mighty civilization, whose rulers were known and respected throughout the western world before the first English post was planted on Indian soil. Side by side with these the wonderful varied colonies and protectorates in their different stages of development, which the Secretary of State for the Colonies is here to represent. In all the marvellous achievement of our peoples which this gathering reflects I am most deeply impressed by the blending of East and West-India with her far descended culture and her intensely varied types, so different from ours, present in this room to concert a common policy with us in