1902 Colonial Conference
# 1902 Colonial Conference

The 1902 Colonial Conference followed the conclusion of the Boer War and was held on the occasion of the coronation of King Edward VII. As with the previous conference, it was called by Secretary of State for the Colonies Joseph Chamberlain who opened it on 30 June 1902.

Chamberlain used the occasion to resubmit his earlier proposals made at the 1897 Colonial Conference for an Imperial Council made up of colonial representatives which would act as a quasi-Imperial Parliament and make decisions for the colonies on imperial policy. This proposal, along with Chamberlain's idea for a unified imperial defence scheme, was rejected by most of the colonial prime ministers. While New Zealand proposed that each colony provide a special force for imperial defence in the case of war, Canada and Australia both believed this idea undermined self-government.

Chamberlain also proposed an imperial economic union or customs union with free trade within the empire and tariffs against goods from outside of it. The colonies, however, passed a resolution rejecting imperial free trade. A resolution in favour of imperial preference as proposed by Canada was approved and Chamberlain agreed to bring the idea to the British government. However, this plan was not implemented until the British Empire Economic Conference in 1932. Britain had more liberal trade policies than the colonies, making it hard for the British to adopt imperial preference policies without undermining its trade agreements with foreign states.

Theodore H. Boggs, an advocate for imperial federation, described the outcome of the conference as "disappointing."

## Participants

The conference was hosted by King Edward VII, with his Colonial Secretary and the premiers of various colonies or their representatives and members of their cabinets:

| Nation | Name | Portfolio |
| - | - | - |
| United Kingdom | Joseph Chamberlain | Secretary of State for the Colonies (chairman) |
| United Kingdom | Lord Selborne | First Lord of the Admiralty |
| United Kingdom | Rear Admiral Wilfred Custance | Director of Naval Intelligence |
| United Kingdom | Lord Onslow | Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies |
| United Kingdom | Gerald Balfour, | President of the Board of Trade |
| United Kingdom | Sir Montagu Ommanney | Permanent Under-Secretary for the Colonies |
| United Kingdom | Sir Francis Hopwood | Permanent Secretary to the Board of Trade |
| United Kingdom | Sir Thomas Holderness | Secretary of the Revenue, Statistics and Commerce Department, India Office |
| United Kingdom | Sir John Anderson | Secretary to the Conference, of the Colonial Office |
| Australia | Sir Edmund Barton | Prime Minister |
| Australia | Sir John Forrest | Minister of Defence |
| Canada | Sir Wilfrid Laurier | Prime Minister |
| Canada | William Stevens Fielding | Minister of Finance |
| Canada | Sir William Mulock | Postmaster General of Canada |
| Canada | William Paterson | Minister of Customs |
| Cape Colony | Sir John Gordon Sprigg | Prime Minister |
| Cape Colony | Thomas Fuller | Agent-General |
| Natal | Sir Albert Henry Hime | Prime Minister |
| Newfoundland Colony | Sir Robert Bond | Premier |
| Colony of New Zealand | Richard Seddon | Prime Minister |
