possibly prove detrimental to the commercial or industrial interests of our insular territory, which was regarded by implication as holding a separate nation. In the press of Canada, and in that of Australia since federation, the term 'national' has acquired a local federal use, superseding the old habit of applying it to the single but scattered stock of which the headquarters was in these islands. But such signs of a centrifugal tendency coexist with the manifestation of a clear desire for continued and closer cooperation. That desire seems to pervade practically the whole of the democracy in Australia and New Zealand, almost the whole of the English-speaking population in Canada and South Africa, the best part of the French-speaking population in Canada, and finally a certain number of the best educated Dutch in South Africa. Under the circumstances, there seems to be an opening for constructive statesmanship, to make this widespread desire, which I need not say exists in England also, the basis of an improved organization for mutual advantage. What seems to be required is some machinery of partnership, to serve certain definite purposes, which already are recognised as inviting cooperation.
The guide to the nature of the organization required must be sought in a clear understanding of the specific purposes which it is intended to serve. Those purposes, therefore, have to be stated and analyzed. Accordingly, I offer the following classification of Imperial interests:
I. External interests, comprising:
(a) Political interests;
(b) Commercial interests.
II. Internal interests, including:
(a) Vital interests;
(b) Beneficial interests.
The principle of the above classification is to distinguish the various interests in accordance with the degree in which they demand, or admit of, joint action. In the first main division, that of 'external' interests, I regard
