§ MR. JOHN CAMPBELL (Armagh, S.)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, in view of the importance 724 attached to the holding of the Colonial Conference in 1906 and the consequences that may flow from its deliberations, and having regard to the repeated declarations of His Majesty's Ministers in favour of the conference being free and unfettered, he will arrange that the proceedings of the conference shall be open to the public Press, or at least that the public Press shall be represented at those proceedings when the commercial relations of the various parts of the Empire are under discussion.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURIt must rest with the Colonial Conference itself to determine whether it will or will not have representatives of the Press present at its deliberations. If they take my advice they certainly will not admit the Press. I believe it would be absolutely fatal to any good work being done.