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1897 Colonial Conference

Conference between the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the British Empire

Field	Value
summit_name	1897 Colonial Conference
country	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland United Kingdom
dates	24 June–8 July 1897
venues	Colonial Office, Whitehall
cities	London
participants
heads_of_state_label	Heads of Government
heads_of_state	11
chairperson	Joseph Chamberlain
(Secretary of State for the Colonies)
follows	[1894](1894-colonial-conference)
precedes	[1902](1902-colonial-conference)
website
keypoints	Imperial council, imperial defence

(Secretary of State for the Colonies) The 1897 Colonial Conference was a conference between the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the 11 self-governing colonies of the British Empire. The conference was convened in London by Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain in 1897 on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Chamberlain's intention was to draw the self-governing colonies into closer co-operation with the United Kingdom.

Delegates were sent to the conference by Canada, Newfoundland Colony, New Zealand, the Australian self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia, and the South African Cape Colony and Colony of Natal.

Chamberlain proposed the creation of a permanent Imperial Council made up of delegates from the colonies to act as an Empire-wide parliament with the power to bind the colonies on imperial matters but this was rejected by the colonies due to fears of loss of autonomy. Chamberlain also propose that colonies increase their contributions to the Royal Navy but only some colonies agreed to increase their contributions and no permanent arrangement was agreed to.

Chamberlain also proposed a customs union between the colonies and Britain while Canada proposed preferential trade but no decision was made by the delegates.

Participants

The conference was hosted by Queen Victoria, with her Colonial Secretary and the premiers of various colonies:

Nation	Name	Portfolio
United Kingdom United Kingdom	Joseph Chamberlain	Secretary of State for the Colonies (Chairman)
William Palmer, 2nd Earl of Selborne	Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies
Sir John Bramston	Assistant Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies
	Sir Wilfrid Laurier	Prime Minister
British Cape Colony Cape Colony	Sir John Gordon Sprigg	Prime Minister
[[File:Flag of the Natal Colony 1875-1910.svg	25px]] Colony of Natal	Sir Harry Escombe	Prime Minister
Newfoundland Newfoundland Colony	Sir William Whiteway	Premier
New South Wales Colony of New South Wales	Sir George Reid	Premier
New Zealand Colony of New Zealand	Richard Seddon	Premier
Queensland Colony of Queensland	Sir Hugh Nelson	Premier
South Australia South Australia	Charles Kingston	Premier
Tasmania Colony of Tasmania	Sir Edward Braddon	Premier
Victoria Victoria	Sir George Turner	Premier
Western Australia Western Australia	Sir John Forrest	Premier

References

(1967). "The Colonial and Imperial Conferences, 1887-1911: A Study in Imperial Organization". [[Longman.
(1991). "Historical dictionary of European imperialism". Greenwood Publishing Group.
(10 July 1897). "Colonial Conference". Sydney Mail.
(1991). "Historical dictionary of European imperialism". Greenwood Publishing Group.
Crowley, F.K.. (2000). "Big John Forrest, 1847–1918: A Founding Father of the Commonwealth of Australia". University of Western Australia Press.
(2 August 1897). "Proceedings of a conference between the secretary of state for the colonies and the premiers of the self-governing colonies at the Colonial Office, London, June and July 1897 [microform]".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

imperial-conference 1897-in-london 1897-in-international-relations 19th-century-diplomatic-conferences 1897-conferences 1897-in-the-british-empire june-1897 july-1897 diamond-jubilee-of-queen-victoria premiership-of-wilfrid-laurier

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