SIR GEORGE FOSTER'S “IMPERIAL JUNKET”: THE FAILURE TO PROMOTE IMPERIAL ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION, 1912–1917

NOTES

• Orville J. McDiarmid, Commercial Policy in the Canadian Economy (Cambridge, Mass., 1946), pp. 213–57; Douglas Annett, British Preference in Canadian Commercial Policy (Toronto, 1948), pp. 35–46. J.A. Colvin, “Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the British Preferential Tariff,” Annual Report of the Canadian Historical Association (1955), pp. 13–23, discuss in detail Laurier's position towards the preference question.
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• George Foster (1847–1931): Conservative Member of Parliament, 1882–1900, 1904–21; Minister of Marine and Fisheries, 1885–88; Minister of Finance, 1886–96; Minister of Trade and Commerce, 1911–21; Senator, 1921–31; K.C.M.G., 1914; G.C.M.G., 1918.
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• Cd. 5745, “Minutes of the Proceedings of the Imperial Conference 1911,” Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers (1911), LIV, 339–44.
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• Ibid., pp. 339–40.
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• Ibid., p. 341.
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• Harcourt to Sir George Murray, 8 Nov. 1911, Harcourt MS, box 4, Stanton Harcourt, England.
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• C. O. 532/37/6598, 1 March 1912, Public Record Office, London, (henceforth P.R.O.).
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• C. O. 532/37/8220, 4 March 1912.
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• Ibid
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• Ibid
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• Although the Canadian protest did not mention the cattle embargo, exclusion of fiscal laws would also remove that topic from the Commission's purview.
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• C. O. 532/37/8220, 4 March 1912.
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• C. O. 532/37/6598, 1 March 1912.
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• Ibid
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• C. O. 532/37/8220, 4 March 1912.
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• Foster Diary, 28 June 1912, Public Archives of Canada (henceforth P.A.C.).
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• Henry Borden (ed.), Letters to Limbo (Toronto, 1971), p. 71.
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• C. O. 532/45/19683, 24 June 1912.
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• Foster Diary, 28 June 1912.
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• Ibid
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• Sir Ailwyn Fellowes to Andrew Bonar Law, the leader of the Unionist Party, 8 Dec. 1911, Bonar Law MS 24/5/21, Beaverbrook Library, London.
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• Foster Diary, 11 Oct. 1912, P.A.C.; See also William S. Wallace, The Memoirs of the Rt. Hon. Sir George Foster (New York, 1933), p. 107.
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• Harcourt to Prime Minister Asquith, 17, 18 Oct. 1912, Harcourt MS, box 4.
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• Foster Diary, 19 Oct. 1912.
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• Vincent to Harcourt, 4 May 1913, Harcourt MS, box 7.
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• Edward Harding Diary, 27 May 1913, Harding MS, Royal Commonwealth Society, London. Harding was a first-class clerk in the Colonial Office and secretary to the Commission.
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• Ibid
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• Canada, Parlianrentary Debates (Commons), I (1914), 929–32. This is one of the few references made to the Commission in the Canadian Parliament.
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• Harding Diary, 16 Aug. 1914.
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• Foster, “Speeches,” Foster Ms, P.A.C. 85, folder 97. Wallace, The Memoirs of Sir George Foster, pp. 228–85, contains Foster's account of his trip to New Zealand and Australia which reveals much of Foster's imperial enthusiasm.
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• C.O. 532/62/6711, 22 Feb. 1913.
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• Murray Donnelly, Dafoe of the Free Press (Toronto, 1969), p. 17, attributes this remark to Dafoe.
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• Vincent to Harcourt, 13 May 1913, Harcourt MS, box 7.
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• Sir John Anderson, the permanent undersecretary in the Colonial Office, to Harcourt, 13 May 1913, Harcourt MS, box 7.
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• Harding Diary, 10 Aug. 1914.
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• C.O. 532/76/31003, 5 Aug. 1914, Harding to Henry Lambert, an assistant undersecretary in the Colonial Office.
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• Ibid
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• Ibid
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• Foster to Borden, 5 Aug. 1914, Foster MS, vol. 15, folder 1111. See also, Documents on Canadian External Relations (Ottawa, 1967), I, 283 henceforth DCER
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• Borden to Foster, 6 Aug. 1914, Borden MS, vol. 189, folder 654, P.A.C.
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• Foster to Harding, 3 Nov. 1914, Foster MS, vol. 15, folder 1111. See also, William K. Hancock, Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs, vol. II, part I: Problems of Economic Policy, 1919–1939 (Oxford, 1942), pp. 94–100, for a discussion of how the war caused some to look to the empire for future imperial economic defense.
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• C.O. 532/81/4131.
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• Ibid.
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• C.O. 532/77/13305, 8 April 1915, minute by Harding. See also, Canada, Parliamentary Debates (Commons), III, 1939
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• C.O. 532/77/13305, minute by Harding.
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• Ibid.
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• C.O. 532/77/13305, 10 April 1915.
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• Ibid.
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• C.O. 532/77/21455. 26 April 1915, minute by Lambert.
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• C.O. 532/77/21266, 11 May 1915, minute by Lambert.
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• Ibid., minute by Harcourt.
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• C. O. 532/78/27967, 5 June 1915.
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• C. O. 532/78/31140, 17 June 1915.
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• C. O. 532/78/33225, 9 June 1915.
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• C. O. 532/77/23652, 21 May 1915.
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• C. O. 532/78/28882, 2 June 1915. See also, DCER, I, 286–88.
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• C. O. 532/78/28882, 8 July 1915, minute by Andrew Bonar Law who had been appointed the colonial secretary as a result of the formation of a coalition government in Britain in May, 1915.
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• C. O. 532/82/35482, 31 July 1915.
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• C. O. 532/78/35553, 1 Aug. 1915; C.O. 532/78/36342, 9 Aug. 1915, minute by Harding.
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• C. O. 532/78/35553, 1 Aug. 1915.
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• C. O. 532/78/36134, 4 Aug. 1915.
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• C. O. 532/78/36342, 6 Aug. 1915. See also, DCER, I, 291.
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• Ibid
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• Ibid
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• Ibid
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• C. O. 532/78/37299, 11 Aug. 1915.
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• Vincent had been created Lord D'Abernon in 1914.
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• C. O. 532/78/37299, 14 Aug. 1915.
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• Foster to Sinclair, 26 Aug. 1915, Foster MS, vol. 15, folder 1111.
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• Ibid
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• C. O. 532/89/32086, 6 July 1916, minute by Bonar Law.
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• C. O. 532/82/35482, 31 July 1915, minute by Harding.
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• Borden to Foster, 16 July 1916, Borden MS, vol. 21, folder 2920.
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• Harding Diary, 30 Aug. 1914: a tape recording transcript of an interview with Henry Stevens by Professor Stephens Munro, 1966, Stephen MS, P.A.C. Stevens succeeded Foster as the Minister of Trade and Comaerce.
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• C.O. 532/84/36026, 30 July 1916.
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• Foster Diary, nd. Jan. 1917.
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• Ibid
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• Cd. 8462, “Final Report of the Royal Commission on Natural Resources, Trade, Legislation of Certain Portions of His Majesty's Dominions,” Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers (1917–18), X, 130–31.
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• Foster to Jebb, 23 Oct. 1912, Jebb MS, vol. A–G, Commonwealth Institute, London.
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• C. O. 532/76/44932A, 14 Nov. 1914.
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• Ibid
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• Ibid
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• Ibid
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• Cd. 8462, “Final Report,” p. 160.
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• Ibid
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• Ibid., pp. 65–75, 158–164; C.O. 532/109/4949, 1 Feb. 1918, minute by Harding points out that most of these recommendations were made by Foster.
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• Cd. 8462, “Final Report,” p. 164.
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• Hancock, Problems of Economic Policy, pp. 98–106, analyzes aspects of the Commission s conclusions.
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• Foster, “Trade and the Empire After the War,” (1916), Foster MS, vol. 76, folder 206.
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• Ibid
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• Foster Diary, nd. Jan. 1917.
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• Victor Rothwell, British War Aims and Peace Diplomacy, 1914–1918 (Oxford, 1971), pp. 266–81, discusses this topic and touches upon the reluctance of the Dominions to endorse control of war materials. See also forthcoming article by this author in The Canadian Historical Review on “Attempts at Imperial Economic Co-operation, 1912–1918: Sir Robert Borden's Role.”
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• See Cab. 32/1, “Proceedings of the Imperial War Conference, 1917, 1918,” P.R.O. See also, C.O. 886/7–9, “Confidential Prints,'' P.R.O., which contains the post-1918 correspondence pertaining to the resolution of the Imperial War Conference and which suggests that there was little implementation of the resolutions deriving from the Commission's recommendations.
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• C. O. 532/102/42948, 26 Sept. 1917, minute by Harding.
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• C. O. 532/99/36413, 20 Jan. 1917; C.O. 532/105/14881, 20 March 1917; C.O. 532/105/19613, 14 April 1917; C.O. 532/138/59214, 5 Oct. 1919, are only a few of the many examples of decisions by the Colonial Office to postpone or to avoid action. Also, Canada, “Return to and Address to the Governor-General of April 24, 1918, for a copy of the correspondence and all papers generally exchanged between certain portions of His Majesty's Dominions with a view to give effect to the conclusions of the Dominions Royal Commission,” Sessional Papers (1919) No. 301 (Unpublished), pp. 1–216, is merely a collection of statistics on various harbors in Canada.
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