Imperial Conferences were gatherings of British Empire government leaders in London in 1887, 1897, 1902, 1907, 1911, 1921, 1923, 1926, 1930 and 1937. The 1907 conference changed the name from "Colonial Conference" and agreed that the meetings should henceforth be regular rather than taking place while overseas statesmen were visiting London for royal occasions (jubilees, coronations).
The conferences were a key forum for Dominion governments to assert the desire for removing the remaining vestiges of their colonial status. The conference of 1926, by Balfour Declaration, marked the acknowledgement that the Dominions would henceforth rank as equals to the United Kingdom, as members of British Commonwealth of Nations. The conference of 1930 came to conclusion to remove the legislative supremacy of the British Parliament as it was expressed through the Colonial Laws Validity Act, and recommended a declaratory enactment of the United Kingdom Parliament, passed with the consent of the Dominions. The Statute of Westminster 1931 was enacted by the imperial Parliament in pursuance of that recommendation.
The conferences were a key forum for Dominion governments to assert the desire for removing the remaining vestiges of their colonial status.
The conference of 1930 came to conclusion to remove the legislative supremacy of the British Parliament as it was expressed through the Colonial Laws Validity Act, and recommended a declaratory enactment of the United Kingdom Parliament, passed with the consent of the Dominions.
In 1917–18 the Imperial War Conference acknowledged the importance of the whole empire in defense policy by admitting India, not yet self-governing, to the conference.
The constitution of the conferences themselves and the status of the dominions were the chief problems discussed at meetings during the 1920s.
The resolutions of the conferences were given legal effect by the Statute of Westminster (1931; see Westminster, Statute of), which declared the legislatures of the several dominions on an equal footing with that of the United Kingdom.
Feeds |
Contact