A Successful Experiment in Imperial Co-operation

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,--I am extremely sorry if you have had any disappointments because my talk is not to be illustrated, but I wanted to take this opportunity offered by your Club to explain to you how, in building up this Imperial War-Graves Commission, we have really done something useful in regard to Imperial co-operation.

Mr. President, I come here in the middle of a general election, and I am pledged both by my position as head of the first really Imperial department, that is to say, the servant of all the six governments of the Empire, and also by international decency and courtesy, to say nothing that might be taken as

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General Ware is permanent Vice-Chairman of the Imperial War Graves Commission. He served in the Great War from 1919 and was twice Mentioned in Despatches. A graduate of the Universities of London and Paris, he has been an occasional examiner for the Civil Service Commission and for the Board of Education; Assistant Director of Education for the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony; and a member of the Transvaal Legislative Council. Returning to England, he was appointed Editor of The Morning Post, 1905-1911. Among other distinctions he is a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour; Croix de Guerre and a Commander Crown of Belgium. He has published numerous books, pamphlets and articles on such subjects as "Educational Foundations of Trade and Industry"; "The Worker and His Country."

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comment on the political programmes of either of your parties. I know that I can depend on you to give me the benefit of the doubt if in this respect I ever seem to be straying from the path which I have laid out for myself.

It is 18 years since I was last in Canada, and when I then spoke to the Canadian Clubs I was asked to give some of my impressions of Canada. I am not going to attempt to give you my impressions on this occasion. For instance, I am not going to tell you about the marvellous progress which I see you have made. I can only assure you that I am going back with my heart full of hope, and enormously encouraged a s an imperialist by what I have seen. Neither am I going to tell you how all my predictions during my last visit, as to your increase in population, have been falsified, owing to circumstances over which Canada had no control.

One thing I should however like to say; I cannot indeed stand up before a Canadian audience without referring to it. Soon after I landed in Canada this time I noticed that in many of your papers there were articles, which had not been there 18 years ago, giving reasons against annexation. Now I want to tell you, gentlemen, that I am going back to England in no way disturbed by that bogey. (Hear, hear, and applause) If you will allow me to speak in what my friend, Mr. Richard Jebb, would call my tribal capacity, that is, as a mere Englishman, I cannot help saying that the last time any native soil possessed by Englishmen was annexed was in 1066, and I think we may leave it at that. I would only add that however often that bogey is rechristened, and we have seen it under other names, we may be quite sure that, as our French friends would say, "plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose." (Applause) No, gentlemen, as I go through Canada I find her in many ways more British-Britannic, to use that term if you like-than ever. Wherever I go I find a marvellous devotion, dedication, to the British Commonwealth of Nations, that no disturbances can affect in their constancy any more than the mist and spray can check the deliberate majesty and the dynamic serenity of the flow of water over Niagara. (Applause)

May I give you two examples, which have come very close to me at this time, of the continuance of the British spirit in Canada? In the course of my work I have had to meet very many women of all classes and kinds who gave their men in the Great War. I cannot describe them; I can only say to you that in Great Britain they do not talk to you about their loss, there is no public bemoaning of that loss, no open boasting of the imperishable glory of their men, but a quiet, calm, dignity, as they discuss it. I find here among the women of Canada that same heroism--a heroism, believe me, unsurpassed by anything that lent lustre to the actual field of battle. As I stand before these women of Canada I find myself repeating, reverently, that line of Mr. Rudyard Kipling--"Truly ye come of the blood."

Again, in the course of my tour I have often stood in silence before your war memorials. Now, I had the great good fortune to hear one of the very latest speeches made in England by that great American, Mr. Walter Page. The occasion was the Academy Banquet, where, as you know among others, are always present the leaders of the government, and of the services and the leaders of thought in the United Kingdom. In that speech Mr. Page described in words that thrilled all of us who were there, the effort that had been made by Great Britain during the war. At the end of his speech (I am speaking from memory, I have never read it since), he said that now that success had crowned that effort he heard all over the land the cry going up-"Not unto us, 0 God, not unto us." When he sat down we were all so moved that for a moment we forgot to applaud. We were all saying the words over to ourselves, and thinking that it was true of every other Englishman, and hoping that it was true of ourselves. Well, gentlemen, believe me, when I stood before your war memorials, I found that they expressed the same thought; Canada also is saying, "Not unto us, 0 God, not unto us." I do not want to spoil that by attempting to analyze it, or by saying that it represents a quality which differentiates us from other peoples; but I will say this, I am going back to England knowing that Canada realizes, as much as any other part of the British Empire, that no other nation is fit to be a partaker in this British Commonwealth until it has given evidence of also possessing that quality. (Hear, hear, and applause) Gentlemen, it is decreed that for the present the British Empire must stand alone. (Hear, hear)

When I came to you 18 years ago, I came advocating the welding together of the Empire through alliance between the different parts rather than through federation, and I have had no reason to change that view; but I also advocated a great constructive policy, I refer to what was known in England then as Tariff Reform, which, whether one agreed or disagreed with it economically or technically, did represent a great constructive ideal. I then pleaded for a closer welding together of the Empire, because I believe that the progressive force must come to the Mother Country from the circumstances, and I pleaded for it in the interests of the destinies of the Empire itself. Today, anybody who stands up and pleads for it must do so in the name of a stricken world, so large a part of whose burdens the British Empire has to bear almost alone on its shoulders.

I said at Winnipeg that I believed the work of conservation, rather than the pursuit of great constructive ideals, was what the Empire had to do immediately. Ideals there are in the world, to which men, make no mistake about it, are prepared to devote and sacrifice themselves; but they emanate from the seething brain of Russia and are destructive of all in our civilization of which, I say it in all reverence, God looking down on the works of man can see that it is good. As in the case of the French Revolution so now the British are called upon to control and regulate these new ideas; to enable them to do so the Empire must conserve within herself all her powers for good so that united we may have the strength required. Well, what can we do? If I may go back to my analogy, I would refer again to Niagara (I spent the week-end there, so you will understand my doing so). And I would say; the force is there, you find it in all parts of the Empire, don't let it go to waste in the bewildering rapids of academic discussion (hear, hear); let us utilize it in some way as much as we can. It is still there, even in this time of national reaction, following the sublime effort made by the Empire in the war and in which Canada played so glorious a part.

It is always dangerous to press an analogy too far, but I think it is safe to say that I am going to try and tell you something about an Imperial powerstation, which was created, when even before the war was over the Empire was called upon to build up an organization which would care for our graves in all parts of the world. I am not going to repeat here what I said recently at Massey Hall and elsewhere; I am merely going to give you a cold and historical statement of this machinery-a beastly word, but I can use no other; I am not going to refer to the sentimental side of the question at all. I want you first to realize some of the elements of the problem, with which we had to deal; they are really all contained in the fact that there were hundreds of thousands of graves of men from all parts of the British Empire, scattered all over the world which had to be card for. As far back as 1917 the Prince of Wales, who had taken an intense interest in this work at the front, addressed a memorandum to the Imperial Conference, which was then sitting in London, requesting the representatives of the different parts of the Empire to consider what steps should be taken to ensure the permanent care of those graves. You will tell me that the problem was made easy because of the deep sentiment behind all those matters which we had to consider. Well, that is true; but remember sentiment cuts both ways. The sentiment on the part of the Dominions for caring for their own graves alone was just as strong as the Imperial sentiment suggesting co-operation in this work. Sentiment certainly did give us an atmosphere of calm consideration in which we were able to deal with the problems.

As it was obvious that the work would have to be carried out at public expense, we had at the outset to get public sanction for what we were going to do, in accordance with those democratic traditions on which are founded the hard-won liberties of the British race. First of all, we had to look around for an Imperial legislative machine; we found that in the Imperial Conference. We therefore accepted the Imperial Conference as the only competent legislative body representing all parts of the Empire, and I am told that this is the first time it was ever used in such a legislative capacity. The Conference, having considered the memoranda from the Prince of Wales, asked for definite proposals to be put before it. This was done in exactly the same way as a Bill is submitted to Parliament; and you will find in the Blue Book of the Imperial Conference of 1917 our original proposals set out with the amendments which were made during the two sessions, when they were discussed. As a result the Imperial War Graves Commission was constituted on a truly Imperial basis. In connection with its constitution I would only ask you to note now that it was felt that, owing to the nature of the work, there should be an unofficial (representing the relatives) as well as an official element in its membership; but the official element is larger than the unofficial, and on that official element the Dominions are in the majority.

Having obtained the necessary Imperial legislation we then looked around for some existing Imperial administrative machinery to which we could attach this new department; no such thing was to be found and we had to create our own. We had indeed the offer that our administration should be carried on by one of the Government departments of the United Kingdom, with the assistance of an advisory committee, representing the Dominions. That was not at all the same thing and we dismissed it. I need only remind you that I was trained under Lord Milner, for you to understand that I have always realized that the key to administrative and also to political control is financial control; and it was clear that unless all parts of the Empire, on an equal footing, were going to be allowed to exercise financial control over this work it was in no sense an Imperial organization. If only in creating Imperial organizations we would remember that old Democratic cry, "No taxation (let us say financial participation) without representation!"

Gentlemen, at the moment we had the great good fortune to have Mr. Austin Chamberlain as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the United Kingdom. (Applause) With the great Imperial traditions of his father behind him he immediately saw that here we had an entirely new problem which must be solved in a new way; and I want quite briefly to show you how a system of imperial administrative control was established as it has never been established before.

The Imperial Conference of 1918 had agreed that the cost of the work should be borne by the different States of the Empire in definite proportions. The proportions they adopted were, naturally the respective number of their dead. It would have happened, normally, that the British Treasury, responsible for over 80 per cent. of the expenditure, would have controlled the administration of the finances; but, as I said, we had determined to conform to democratic tradition and democratic principles in dealing with this Imperial finance. Well, Mr. Chamberlain did this for us: he said in effect, "Your Commission, representing all parts of the Empire, shall control their own finance, meeting on a footing of absolute equality; but I will go further, and give you, to assist and advise your Finance Committee, a representative of the Treasury of the United Kingdom who will sit at your meetings without a vote." You will note that the advisory boot is here on the other leg. That Finance Committee has met once a fortnight for the last seven years, and I want to tell you that I have found it is no harder to serve six masters than it is to serve one, taking that one at the human average. There has never been a hitch, they have met on an absolute footing of equality, and we could give you definite comparisons to show that the work has been done more economically by this co-operation than somewhat similar efforts which have been carried on separately by the United Kingdom, by Australia, by New Zealand, by South Africa and by Canada. (Applause)

I can mention only one or two other points in order to explain how this organization is truly representative and truly imperial. The same estimates identically are submitted to every Parliament of the Empire, yearly, with a note reminding them of the agreement of all the States of the Empire gathered together in 1918, that they would bear the cost instated proportions, and asking them to vote their share. But any financial and business men who are present will ask."how do you arrange for the joint control of the Treasuries and Auditors General, the public watch-dogs?" The answer is this: Naturally the Commission appoints its own auditor, but all its books are open to the auditor-general of every part of the Empire. Now, what happens in practice? The auditor-general of the United Kingdom has regularly inspected those accounts and his report has so far been accepted, with the Commission's own Auditor's statement as sufficient by the auditors-general of the other governments of the Dominions; but any auditor-general in any part of the Empire can inspect those books and audit those accounts. Recently when I was up before the Public Accounts Committee of the British House of Commons, where they had rather the wrong view of our position, as I found--imagining that the British auditor-general must be careful not to tread on the toes of the Dominion auditors-general--I pointed out to them that all were in exactly the same position, and I even said-and I don't mind admitting it now that I am leaving the country in a few daysthat I would shortly visit Canada, and that I thought it extremely likely that the auditor-general there would hear of my presence and have me up before some select committee of the House of Commons. Fortunately your elections intervened. (Laughter)

Well, gentlemen, I have had to put all this extremely briefly and succinctly, but I think you will realize that we have built up something that is new in the way of imperial co-operation. Let me give you an example of how such an organization leads to co-operation in the wider sphere of politics. You will remember that at the Lausanne Conference at which we were endeavouring to settle the terms of peace with Turkey, the sanctity of our graves on the Gallipoli Peninsula became one of the major issues. Australia and New Zealand, to whom one-third of these graves belong, were indeed prepared to go to any lengths to ensure that sanctity. To put it very simply, when Lord Curzon at Lausanne found he was faced with this question he cabled to the Foreign Office for full information as to the situation in Gallipoli; the Foreign Office automatically rang us up at the central offices of the Imperial War Graves Commission; automatically, again, the Commission appointed a small committee to deal with the matter, consisting of the High Commissioners of Australia and New Zealand and the Vice-Chairman, to supply the information and watch the negotiations and sent one of our officials to Lausanne to give any assistance that was required. The Governments of Australia and New Zealand were thus informed by their High Commissioners of everything that was going on at Lausanne and were able to make their wishes known. If Canada had happened to have any graves in Gallipoli she would also have been automatically in a position to influence the negotiations and the misunderstanding which caused such trouble subsequently would never have arisen. You will realize why I have so constantly used the word automatically; believe me any arrangement which provides for information being furnished otherwise, depending on the good-will and intelligence of an overworked Minister or Head of a Department, is worse than useless; it is positively dangerous as it is bound to break down under heavy pressure and the onus rests on the Government of the United Kingdom alone.

There is only one thing that I would call your attention to, which one perhaps regrets, and that is that the initiative in building up this system on a basis of absolute equality between the different States came from an Englishman, supported by your High Commissioner and other High Commissioners in London. When that initiative comes from the Dominions themselves, then, sir, the British Empire is safe. You will notice that the principle that we have adopted, and on which this organization is based, is that old democratic principle which has led us into trouble with our rulers whenever it has not been observed; that is, No Taxation without Representation, let me say, No Financial Participation without Representation. I am persuaded that so long as there is any common work to be done between the different parts of the Empire that is worth doing, all parts will pay for it. If they are not prepared to pay for it, then it is not worth doing. Once you establish that principle, and then insist that in co-operating you must have full co-operation, I think you are bringing about something which is very different from the old idea of Imperial federation, and which is full of hope for the Empire. (Hear, hear)

After all, gentlemen, let me remind you that it is based on what I may call the financial sacrifice of the individual, which demands equality in the financial sphere just as it demands equality everywhere else. (Loud applause)

THE CHAIRMAN, Gentlemen, I am sure that we have had a clear, straightforward and interesting presentation of a subject that is of very deep interest to all of us, and I would ask Col. Kirkpatrick to present the thanks of the Club.

COL. KIRKPATRICK: in expressing the appreciation of the Club for this fine address I would add that our speaker has brought forth thoughts that bear within themselves the power of larger thoughts than at first may be considered by many of us. From the earliest development of this wonderful thing which we call the British Empire there have been struggles in the minds of men throughout the whole Empire as to what method shall ultimately be devised to bring about a complete and active co-operation of the parts thereof with the whole. Every thought that comes from a great mind, such as that of our friend today, adds another stone to the edifice. General Ware represents all of us on the Commission, which is laying a foundation for the future remembrance of all mankind of the sacrifices made by our great and heroic dead, and we thank him for the work he is doing in that respect.