§ 47. Colonel GRETTONasked the Prime Minister whether, seeing that a Dominion branch in the Colonial Office charged with dealing with communications and questions affecting the self-governing Dominions was established during the Government of 1906–10, and that it was agreed at the time of the Imperial Conference of 1918 that communication and consultation of the Prime Ministers of the Dominions and of Great Britain should be direct with the Prime Minister of Great Britain, he will say if that arrangement has been discontinued; if so, why; and if the announcement made of the intended appointment of a Secretary of State for the Dominions in any way modifies or is in conflict with the desire of the Prime Ministers of the Empire expressed in 1918 for direct communication without the intermediary of a Secretary of State?
§ Colonel GRETTONBefore I put this question, may I say that it is not quite in the form in which I drafted it, but it is, in substance, the question that I desire to ask.
§ The PRIME MINISTERThe answer to both parts of the question is in the negative. The circumstances in which direct communications between Prime Ministers take place are clearly set out in the Resolution of the Imperial War Cabinet of 1918, printed on p. 165 of the Proceedings of the Imperial War Conference of that year (Cmd. 9177). This Resolution was confirmed at the Conference of 1921, and remains in force.
§ Colonel GRETTONHas my right hon. Friend looked up the private records of the Imperial Conference, or the minutes of the Imperial Cabinet, in regard to the answers he has just given me?
§ The PRIME MINISTERI have looked at the minutes, but I have not looked at the other.
§ Colonel GRETTONMay I ask my right hon. Friend if he will do so, and reconsider the matter?