It is announced that the Premier, with two or three Ministers will proceed to England in October to attend the Premiers' Conference, and also the Economic Conference, which it is intended *to hold at the same time. The former will be of particular interest, as the status of the Overseas Dominions in the British Empire is sure to be a matter which will have to be discussed seriously. This arises specially through the signing of the Halbut Fishery Agreement between Canada and the United States having recently been signed by a Canadian Minister, instead of, as has usually been the case in such matters, by the British Minister to the United States. The idea is that the Premier and his colleagues should go to the Conference instructed what to do, rather than that they should take their own stand and report back to Parliament. Although there is no written constitution of the British Empire, as a matter of fact the constitutional powers of Canada are contained in the British North America Act, and the operation of this is claimed_in some quarters to be entirely out of accord with the present status of the country. But as a matter of fact, too, the Act has not seriously interfered with the progress or the aims of the country, and Canadians know very well that if they should desire any alterations in, or additions to it, the Motherland would meet their wishes. The problem of a written constitution for the Empire is such a big and complex one, while such a constitution is so against the very essence of the intangible but firm bond which unites it, that the probability is that one will not be attempted to be' framed, at the Conference, though some agreement may be come to as regards the question of what share the Overseas Dominions shall take in the naval, military, and aerial defence of the Empire.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.