me 17
"The first Colonial Conference, to use the term then current, was held on the occasion of Queen Victoria's 'Jubilee in 1887, Exactly fifty years Jater_when the representatives of the Empire overseas have met. to attend the Coronation of her great~ grandson, the same' organization now an Imperial Conference, developed by experience. of period dical meetings and by the changes} which have taken place in the relative positions of the Dominions. atid the Mother Country, has again. addressed itself to deliberation on. affairs common to all members of the British "Commonwealth of Nations, as the British Empire is called when the emphasis is laid on the special democratic individuality of its member-nations. In a cordance with traditions which Toject strait-waistcoats for constitutional doctrines, the decisions of the Conference have, no legal effect, although they are almost always unanimous, Nevertheless conventions affirmed at these conferences are generally respected, as for example the resolutions passed at the subsidiary conference at Ottawa but now to be subject to examination for the purpose of ensuring facilities for approach to an Anglo-American trade agreement. It Is customary for each Conference to break up in an atmosphere of mutual congratulation, Yet it is difficult to resist the conclusion that on no former occasion has an Imperial Conference been so eloquent) in affirming the Empire's solidarity. 'There was a notable absentee, the Irish Free State, but no word was uttered to make Mr. Eamon' de Valera-feel that the omission was
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.