Abstract:
In April 1907, at the Colonial Conference in London, the premiers of the white self-governing colonies met with members of the imperial government to reconcile two apparently conflicting objectives: to gain greater acknowledgement of their de facto political autonomy, and commitment to strengthening imperial unity.) The outcomes of this conference tend to be cast in constitutional and political terms, but this process also renegotiated the cultural boundaries of empire. The white settler colonies sought to clarify their position within the empire, by, on the one hand, asserting equal status with Britain, and, on the other, emphasizing the distinction between themselves and the dependent colonies.2 In doing so they invoked and reinforced a hierarchical version of empire. This hierarchy, underpinned by ideas of separation and similarity, would be expressed vividly in the conference's outcomes, first in the rejection of the term 'colonial' as a name for future conferences. These were redesignated, inaccurately, as 'imperial', not 'colonial', elevating their status as it narrowed their participation.3 'Imperial' might be metropolitan, but 'colonial' was always peripheral. Whilst the first Colonial Conference, held in 1887, had included Crown colonies along with the self-governing kinds,4 20 years later the former were no longer invited, and India, or, more precisely, the India Office and its officials, was only a marginal presence.s As wider participation declined, imperial government involvement increased. From 1907 the conference was to be chaired by the British prime minister. This pattern was repeated in changes to the Colonial Office itself. The self-governing colonies used the same conference to press for a separate dominion, not colonial, form of imperial administration.
