Empire Lost - Andrew Stewart [104]
or civil servants present; the Dominions between them—not including representatives from India and Southern Rhodesia who had also been invited—mustered 15 in total. The number of British officials—with the exception of those most directly connected—was supposed to be based on the number of Dominion officials present; the rule was that they should not attend unless specially needed. Dominion high commissioners were also to be discouraged from attending. As it had been repeatedly stressed that these were to be intimate meetings, some of the Dominion guests were a little annoyed at the consistently large numbers of British officials who tried to attend subsequent meetings. So much so that Churchill was asked to offer a soothing comment or two along the lines of how important the topics were and how important it was thought to hear the views of the visiting statesmen from the Empire.35 The meetings were recorded in the normal form used for War Cabinet Conclusions with the possibility of additional confidential annexes being added at a subsequent date. The draft minutes were sent to each of the prime ministers for them to make amendments but very few were forthcoming; a bound final version was available for when Mackenzie King, the first to leave, departed for Ottawa. They also received a completed set of records as did members of the War Cabinet, the Service ministers and chiefs of staff in London and the DO and supporting secretariat. Copies with the confidential annexes removed were given a much wider distribution. Finally, the Ministry of Information was responsible for dealing with the media. This was clearly an important part of a meeting for which the intention was to demonstrate Imperial unity and the arrangements had been discussed in some detail as part of the pre-conference committee process. Cranborne held four press conferences during the period and the Dominion leaders also spoke individually, both to correspondents from their own Dominions and to the British press.36 The Conference's opening was reported prominently in The Times and the other leading newspapers, and regular stories were published throughout the meetings and in leading journals.37
The most detailed account of the Conference is provided by the meticulous summary sent the following month to British Heads of Mission. Understandably this was dominated by references that had been made to foreign affairs and it was stressed to the readers that accounts of the proceedings had been given a most restricted distribution in London and should therefore be regarded as being 'most secret'.38 The Conference began at noon exactly on 1 May with a brief address from Churchill on the immediate war situation. He told his audience that they had gathered to take stock of affairs and whilst he did not expect them to reach conclusions to all the problems that 'confront the British Empire and vex mankind' this would be an overdue opportunity to exchange views and ideas. More than that, it would allow them to show the watching world and the 'very powerful Allies' with whom they had fought, what they were about. With a typical flourish he had concluded that the meeting would demonstrate that the British Empire and Commonwealth 'stands together, woven into one family of nations capable of solving our common problems in full loyalty to the supreme cause for which we have drawn the sword'.39 Mackenzie King thought these comments to be 'most impressive' and 'reassuring'.
Eden's review of foreign affairs followed. According to the comments given to Britain's ambassadors these were well received with general praise being given for the way in which wartime foreign policy had been handled. It was further, pointedly, noted that there was 'entire satisfaction with the arrangements that had been made to keep them in close and effective touch with developments'. These comments were 'particularly gratifying'. Fraser thought that British policy had been right; Curtin did not know how it could have been done better than it had; even Mackenzie King thought that difficult situations had