Great Britain and Ireland and five (one each) the Dominions of Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, and Newfoundland. The
Commission came into being in April, 1912. It was the outcome of a
Resolution of the Imperial Conference of 1911. The members of that
Conference and of others which preceded it had warmly expressed the
opinion that the time had arrived for drawing closer the bonds of Empire;
that with the increase in facilities for communication and intercourse
there had developed a deepened sense of common aims and ideals and a
recognition of common interests and purposes; and that questions were
arising affecting not only Imperial trade and commerce but also the many
other inter-relations of the Dominions and the Mother Country which
clamantly called for closer attention and consideration. The time at the
command of the Conference was found to be too short for such a purpose,
and it was to study problems thus arising, and to make practical
recommendations that our Commission was appointed.

The individuals forming the Commission were, first and foremost, Lord
D'Abernon (then Sir Edgar Vincent). He was our Chairman, the biggest man
of us all; ex-banker, financial expert, accomplished linguist; a
sportsman whose horse last year won the Irish St. Leger; an Admirable
Crichton; an excellent Chairman. Then came Sir Alfred Bateman, retired
high official of the Board of Trade, a master of statistics and
unequalled in experience of Commissions and Conferences. He was our
Chairman in Canada and Newfoundland and a most capable Chairman he made.
Sir Rider Haggard, novelist, ranked third; a master of fact as well as of
fiction; a high Imperialist, and versed both theoretically and
practically in agriculture and forestry. Next came Sir William (then
Mr.) Lorimer of Glasgow, a man of great business experience, an expert
authority in all matters appertaining to iron and steel and in fact all
metals and minerals. He was Chairman of the North British Locomotive
Company and of the Steel Company of Scotland, also a Director of my old
company, the Glasgow and South-Western Railway. Then Mr. Tom Garnett
(christened Tom), an expert in the textile trade of Lancashire, owning
and operating a spinning mill in Clitheroe; a good business man as well
as a student of "high politics," a scholar and a gentleman. Of the last
and least, my humble self, I need not speak, as with him the reader is
well acquainted.