Sir Joseph Ward, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, then
proposed that the Conference should be open to the Press, except when the subjects were confidential. He said that during the last Conference there was some annoyance in New Zealand, as people were in the dark as to what was happen- ing. Sir Wilfrid Laurier said that if the people of New Zealand were uninformed they at least knew as much as Londoners and Canadians. Public discussion was undesir- able ; unanimous decisions were hardly ever reached in such circumstances. Mr. Asquith thought that a fairly long precis issued to the Press every day would be all that was necessary. General Botha made the pertinent comment that if the discussions on the South African Union had been public, Union would probably not have been achieved. Ultimately Sir Joseph Ward withdrew his motion.
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