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AN IMPERIAL IN INTELLIGENCE
DEPARTMENT
THE COLONIES AND THE PRIVY
COUNCIL.
The late Lord Grey, if we recollrfct
rightly, suggested some years ago that
the summoning of colonial statesmen to
the Privy Council was the best way to
promote the higher unity of tho Empire.
. . . Sir Frederick Pollock and his
colleagues now givo body and substance
to this idea by suggesting tho formation
of an Imperial Committee of tho Privy
Council, including certain Ministers of
the Crown, together with tho beßt pos
sible representatives of'colonial knowledge
and opinion, to act under the presidency
of the Prime Ministor, as f ’an intelligence
department for tho civil affairs of tho
Empire.” It is further suggested that
coloniat Premiers and other specially
qualified persons might on suitable occa
sions bo invited to attend' meetings of the
Cabinet when matters of common Im
perial concern are under discussion. Tho
especial merit of these suggestions (re
marks the "Times”) is that they find in
tho existing forms and precedents of tho
Constitution all the materials required
for tho construction of a permanent organ
of Imperial counsol and deliberation.
Such an organ has already been improvis
ed ad hoc in the colonial conferences
which have more than once been held.
But by bringing future conferences into
organic relntion to the Privy Council,
and by providing them with a permanent
secretarial staff, wo invest them at onco
with those attributes of permanence, con
tinuity, and a comprehensive grasp of
Imperial affairs which cannot otherwise
appertain to them. Sir Frederick Pollock
is careful to make it clear that "there is
no suggestion of creating new executive or
compulsory powers. The object is not to
diminish in any way the responsibility
of Ministers to Parliament, nor to
commit tlio Government Of any colony to
anything to which it has not specifically
assented, but to provide for decisions af
fecting tlio genoral interests of the Em
pire, being arrived at with the fnllest
information.' There is. moreover, no
conflict with, the Committee of Imperial
Defence, which has a definite function
and sphere of activity, and is not an off
shoot of tho Privy Council. It is rather,
perhaps, a forerunner of other expert
committees which may bo constituted
in time to deal with other special topics
of interest to the Empire, such as law,
communications, and commerce. All
<ueh committees would be ancillary to the
Imperial Committee of tlio Privy Counoil,
and would hold their special information
nt its disposal, and that of the Primo
Minister. But tho Imperial Committee
itself would virtually consist of tho dif
ferent Governments in consultation. Its
permanent staff would he an intelligence
department, collecting, digesting, anil as
similating all acco-sible information con
cerning tho civil affairs of the Empire:
and with this information at its disposal
the committee would take counsel for co
ordinate action by tho several Govern
ments represented in all cases where co
ordination was found to be desirable and
common action feasible—in questions re
lating to foreign and commercial policy,
for example, and 'the numerous matters
in which it is desirable that organisation
and legislation in different parts of the
Empire should be of a harmonious charac
ter—e.g., merchant shipping, copyright,
naturalisation, admission of aliens, mar
riage, otc.’ Its action might be slow, for
unanimity would lie essential to it and
more party contention, whether colonial
or domestic, would bo alien from it. But
the slower the surer in tho end
In ally case tho suggestion is one which no
true citizen of the Empire can regard
wAli anything but the utmost goodwill.
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