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extend an invitation; there Churchill's personal plane was waiting for both of them to complete the journey to London.28 The seven-strong Canadian delegation were centred at the Dorchester Hotel, the Australians and New Zealanders, 18 in total including the prime ministers' wives, settled into the Savoy, while the much smaller South African party, just four in total, made do with the Hyde Park Hotel. Special telephones with scrambler equipment were installed in the suites of each of the Dominion leaders. In addition Curtin and Fraser were allotted offices in the War Cabinet Rooms; Mackenzie King and Smuts preferred to work in their hotels and arrangements were made to assist them.29 The Dominion leaders were invited to attend the Monday War Cabinet and any other war-related meetings that were deemed appropriate. In addition there would be two meetings a day of the actual Conference both held in the Cabinet Room at No. 10 Downing Street; the only exception was the two general reviews of the war situation which took place in the Prime Minister's Map Room at the War Cabinet office.30 The timetable covered ten days, but there were plenty of gaps with only eleven specially convened sessions and the invites to attend the War Cabinet gatherings; on seven of the days there was just a single meeting. A draft schedule showing a two-week programme was also given to each of them upon their arrival, but it was subsequently found to be impracticable to adhere to these plans. The Dominion leaders made various suggestions as to the order on which the subjects should be discussed and it proved impossible to forecast with any degree of accuracy how long would be spent on each. As a result the detailed agenda issued the night before a meeting was the only firm indication of arrangements. To keep each of the prime ministers fully informed it was agreed that, aside from messages received from their home governments, that they would receive various FO telegrams and the weekly résumé of the military situation during their stay. Ultimately no papers were circulated in advance, only the main points for discussion were sent to them. Ten papers were circulated during the course of the meeting and several of these were intended as providing further clarification about points that had arisen during the discussions. A reviewer of the events that took place, writing some time afterwards, commented that because it had not been intended to produce a series of formal resolutions this 'made it all the easier for discussion to be developed on broad lines and unnecessary detail to be avoided'.31
Socially no effort was spared to impress the Imperial guests. The Conference opened with a dinner party at Buckingham Palace; the King had asked beforehand for a briefing of the current political situation in each of the Dominions and this was augmented by a personal report from Cranborne in late April of the most recent developments.32 Each of the overseas leaders was also the guest-of-honour for their own hosted lunch as Cranborne was keen to ensure that they would all have an opportunity to make an important public speech. Smuts would visit Birmingham where he would receive the Freedom of the City. In addition Mackenzie King was invited to address members of both Houses at Westminster—he was said to 'excel' in parliamentary surroundings—while both Curtin and Fraser had the Freedom of the City of London conferred upon them in a grand ceremony at the Guildhall.33 Initially it had been agreed that private individuals and bodies were to be discouraged from extending social invites to the assembled leaders. The official record noted that 'in the event it turned out that the prime ministers were rather embarrassed by the number of invitations they received to attend official or semi-official parties'. The problem was that many of these were issued by Whitehall departments with no reference to what other engagements were taking place. Also it was clear that the secretariat had been largely ignored.34
At the first meeting there were 28 British ministers, military officers