methods proposed were not of a practicable character. That view simply reflected similar differences of opinion throughout the empire. In all the dominions there were two well defined groups in reference to the question of imperial organization. One was the school of Burke, who placed very little reliance on forms and a great deal of reliance on spiritual ties and the bonds of blood. The other might be called the school of Hamilton who held that sentiment was very well but not very practical unless set forth categorically as obligations, with some agency available for their immediate application. So there was no decision reached by the first conference. The discussion between these two views went on in this particular dominion with a great deal of acrimony, and the most desperate parliamentary struggle that this building (the Canadian House of Commons) ever saw was waged over that principle. This went on until the voices of the disputants were drowned by the drum beats calling the armies to the field. The war settled one thing at the very outset. The Germans knew all about the British empire. They were a practical people, a hard-headed people who believed nothing that they could not measure and handle, and they regarded the British empire as a political anachronism, a hoary imposture. Here was a supposed empire yet there was no Emperor barking at the colonies and no colonies goose-stepping in awe before the All-Highest (applause). It was quite obvious to them that at the slightest touch of the mailed fist, the whole empire would dissolve. So they applied the mailed fist. We are here from all parts of the empire, and we all tell the same story of what happened on August 4th, 1914 (applause). We saw all these invisible and intangible ties become bonds of steel and adamant, that held us one and indivisible through the unimaginable strain of the great war. There was never any flinching throughout the great struggle. The war is over not quite two years; and already the lessons of Gallipoli and Flanders are growing dim to some. Because the bonds that bind can no longer be visualized as marching armies there are those who are actually worrying lest the peoples of the empire may drift apart.