administrative power now enjoyed by all the self-governing powers."

Sir Wilfrid's policy was not, however, wholly negative, for he was
mainly responsible for the formal change in 1907 in the character of
the periodical conferences. The earlier conferences were between the
secretary of state and representatives of "the self-governing
colonies." They were colonial conferences in fact and in name--a
fact egregiously pictured to the eye in the famous photograph of the
conference of 1897, revealing Mr. Chamberlain complacently seated,
with 15 colonial representatives grouped about him in standing
postures. In 1907 the conference became one between governments
under the formal title of imperial conference, with the prime
minister the official chairman, as primus inter pares. It was the
first exemplification of the new theory of equality.

The change of government in Great Britain in 1905 must have brought
to Sir Wilfrid a profound sense of relief; it was no longer
necessary to rest upon his armor night and day. Not that the
Imperialist drive ceased but it no longer found its starting point
and rallying place in the Colonial office. The centralists operated
from without, looking about for someone to put forward their ideas,
as in 1911 when they took possession of Sir Joseph Ward, New
Zealand's vain and ambitious Prime Minister, and induced him to
introduce their half-baked schemes into the Conference. He and they
were suppressed by universal consent, Sir Wilfrid simply lending a
hand. Sir Wilfrid's refusal at this conference to join Australia and
other Dominions in a demand that they be consulted by the British
government in matters of foreign policy seemed to many out of
harmony with the Imperial policies which he had been pursuing. Mr.
Asquith at this conference declared that Great Britain could not