licy found a new champion at the Conference of
1911.

Sir Joseph Ward, Mr Seddon's successor as prime minister of New
Zealand, {294} submitted some months in advance a proposal for an
Imperial Council of State advisory to the British Government, and then,
having meantime been persuaded to go the whole road, made a speech in
favour of a central parliament. The proposal met with still less
favour than before. British, Australian, South African, Newfoundland,
and Canadian prime ministers joined in pronouncing it unworkable and
undesirable. 'The proposal seems to me to be absolutely
impracticable,' declared Sir Wilfrid Laurier. 'It is not a practical
scheme; our present system of responsible government has not broken
down,' agreed Premier Fisher of Australia. 'The creation of some body
with centralized authority over the whole Empire would be a step
entirely antagonistic to the policy of Great Britain which has been so
successful in the past, and which has undoubtedly made the Empire what
it is to-day. It is the policy of decentralization which has made the
Empire--the power granted to its various peoples to govern themselves,'
added Premier Botha of South Africa. 'Any scheme of representation--no
matter what you may call it, parliament or council--of the overseas
Dominions must [give them] so very small a representation that it would
be {295} practically of no value,' said Premier Morris of Newfoundland.
Mr Asquith summed up:

We cannot, with the traditions and history of the British Empire behind
us, either from the point of view of the United Kingdom, or from the
point of view of our self-governing Dominions, assent for a moment to
proposals which are so fatal to the very fundamental conditions on
which our empire has been built up and carried on.... It would impair,
if not altogether destroy, the authority of the United Kingdom in such
grave matters as the conduct of foreign policy, the conclusion of
treaties, the maintenance of peace, or the declaration of war, and,
indeed, all those relations with foreign powers, necessarily of the
most delicate character, which are now in the hands of the Imperial
Government, subject to its responsibility to the Imperial Parliament.
That authority cannot be shared, and the co-existence side by side with
the Cabinet of the United Kingdom of this proposed body--it does not
matter by what name you call it for the moment--clothed with the
functions and the jurisdiction which