Imperial Conference

It was announced from London that a meeting of the Imperial Conference will take place in that city next fall. The object of the conference is to discuss the economic condition of the British Commonwealth of Nations, emigration from Great Britain into other parts of the Empire and the question of equal participation by all nations in the foreign policy of the Commonwealth.

The Imperial Conference is a meeting of the Prime Ministers of all the self-governing dominions--Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Union of South Africa, the Irish Free State, Newfoundland--together with the secretary of State for India. In its original form it was called the Colonial Conference and first met when the Premiers represented their Dominion Governments at the Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887. In 1907, however, owing to its growing importance, its name was changed to the Imperial Conference and it was presided over by the Prime Minister of Great Britain instead of the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the forthcoming conference is that its members will represent an estimated population of 436,752,000--more than a quarter of the world's population -- whose religions are Hindu, Mohammedan, Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist, Animist, Sikh, Jain, Parsee, Jewish, polytheistic and idolatrous.