Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-01
COUNTED FOR LITTLE
Comment Over the Recent Colo
NAL Conference.
FAILED IN REAL OBJECT
British Antipathy Too Strong for
Mutual Coed.
SPLIT ON THE TARIFF QUESTION
The One Practical Resolution Adopted
May Be Turned Down-Friction
in the Cabinet.
pecial Correspondence of The Star.

Special Correspondence of The Star
LONDON, May % 1907.
III the colonial conference has done little
to alter the conditions between the mother
country and the colonies, and satisfy the
aspirations of the various premers who
came with high hopes to London to talk
over things with the home people," it GER
tainly has been productive of msunder-
standings and irritations. English officials
Will never understand colonials. They are
too bound up with red tape and convention
to depart from the old ruts marked out
for official feet long ago. 1t does not matter
what party Is in power the result Is the
same, and the sort of superior person.
style which marks the Britisher when talk
Ing with a colonial will not be borne by the
latter. The day for "a certain condescen-
sion In foreigners" as noted by James Rus
sell Lowell has gone by and most English
men are aware Of it. Not so the British
ofhclal however. He does not know it and
his treatment of Australian and other
colonias as overgrown boys would be anus
Ing II 1t were not for the serious conse-
quences that may result.
In the opinion Of most people the confer
ence has not been a good thing in an i'm
perial sense. 1t has not drawn the colonies !
and England closer together On the con-
trary. it has brought out every difference
and accentuated it, and has caused bad
blood In some cases. The coloniaIs profess
themselves disguised and make no effort
to conceal their feelings. Sir William Lyme,
the Australian minister of customs, yester-
day freely expressed his opinion on the
conference which l understand very fairly
summarizes the general feeling of the pre-
miers.
He said: 1.-The action of the government
has been negative from the start, with the
view to negative everything that we want
1t has not been an offensive negation, but it
DO It, felt If this
to do the work it had come to do it should
have been open to the press. 1 know some
got-righx down at the depth of the feeling
of the large majority, that they wanted it
open to the press. But the government did
not. You have received up to the present
to give you of what has taken rlace in the
conference.
There is one remarkable thing-that the
officers who prepared the precis gave
very good precis when it was a minister
OF the government who spoke and very
bad precis when it was not. We are told
that we have to have blue-book some day,
and that blue-book is to contain every
thing, after due revision. 1 don't know
what that means.
II must add that we were met with
what seemed to me to be not a reasonable
opposition by two gentlemen of the minis
try. We were met by them with what
might be termed almost an offensive mega
tive. One was Mr.. Asquith. did not know
when 1 saw him first, but 1 was told he
was lawyer. But it did strike me that
when he had got case he worried it Just
as he would if he had a brief in court L
was told that he a clever barrister
and that was the impression left on my
mind. Another member of the ministry
was the under secretary for the colonies
Winston ChurchilD. Well, how shall 1 de-
scribe his attitude? 1t was against us all
the time, so far preference was con-
cerned, and 1 only say that those two
gentlemen might have done a great deal
more than they did to have helped us in
some ways if not in direct preference"