He
urges that an address be presented to His Majesty's Government,
through the Secretary of State for India, for official
representation at the Imperial Council. My Lord, official
representation may mean little or nothing. It may indeed be
attended with some risk; for I am sorry to have to say--but say
it I must--that our officials do not always see eye to eye with
us as regards many great public questions which affect this
country; and indeed their views, judged from our standpoint,
may sometimes seem adverse to our interests. At the same time,
my Lord, I recognise the fact that the Imperial Conference is
an assemblage of officials pure and simple, consisting of
Ministers of the United Kingdom and of the self-governing
Colonies. But, my Lord, there is an essential difference
between them and ourselves. In their case, the Ministers are
the elect of the people, their organ and their voice,
answerable to them for their conduct and their proceedings.
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