Page:The empire and the century.djvu/381

 reckon. The question of fiscal policy is in the same position. No single nation is willing to surrender the power of taking such measures as it thinks fit for raising revenue; or for creating and maintaining the maximum amount of employment, of whatever kind it thinks best, within its own boundaries. Again, no nation with ideals of its own can surrender its right to exclude or admit certain classes of immigrants out of deference to the interests, opinions, or prejudices, of people living in other countries, thousands of miles away, under wholly different climatic or geographical conditions.

'Beneficial' interests also affect the national welfare, but not so vitally as to make undivided national control a paramount consideration. They include, for example, Ocean Cables, Ocean Transport, Postal System, Migration (white only). Naturalization Laws, Commercial Law (in certain departments), Patents, Copyright, and Judicial Appeals. In connection with all of these it seems possible to hope for the establishment, in the near future, of comprehensive Imperial institutions, controlled by a joint authority on behalf of the several countries.

The common feature in all the above classes of Imperial interests is that organization implies the cooperation of several independent Executives which actually exist. None of these Executives seems to be in need of further advice than is at its disposal already. That is where I think the plan of an advisory council, which Sir Frederick Pollock has put forward, misses the mark. Already we have the Committee of Imperial Defence, an advisory council which lately has played a prominent part in the shaping of our own national policy. The result is not encouraging. We have had the spectacle of our Prime Minister dogmatizing about our military requirements on the strength of the deliberations of that Council; while Lord Roberts, its foremost military expert, simultaneously makes pronouncements which seem to conflict with those of the Prime Minister. It appears that