According to the resolution adopted by the Colonial Conference of 1902, the next Conference should have been held in 1906, but by agreement of all parties it was deferred until the following year. In the interval, a protracted correspondence occurred between the Colonial Office and the Governments of the several States federated in the Commonwealth of Australia, each of which claimed representation in the Conference by its own Ministers, and protested against the sufficiency of the representation that would be given to it by the General Government of the Commonwealth. The "State Rights" doctrine received no encouragement, however, and only the Premier of the Commonwealth, Mr. Deakin, and one of the members of his Cabinet, took part in the Conference, which held its first meeting in London on the 15th of April and its final one on the 14th of May. {54} At the first meeting there were present, as representatives of the Imperial Government, the Prime Minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Earl of Elgin, in the Chair, and several other Members of the Cabinet and officials of the Administration. The Premiers of the self-governing colonies, excepting Sir Robert Bond, of Newfoundland, who arrived a few days later, were all in attendance,—namely, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, of Canada, the Honorable Alfred Deakin, of Australia, the Honorable Sir J. G. Ward, of New Zealand, Dr. L. S. Jameson, of Cape Colony, the Honorable F. R. Moor, of Natal, and General Louis Botha, of the Transvaal. The Conference was first addressed by the Prime Minister, and responses to his remarks were made by the several colonial premiers. It was then agreed that the constitution of the Conference and the question of military defence should be the subjects first considered. Before ending this preliminary sitting it was decided, as one ruling on the constitution of the Conference, that any Ministers accompanying their Prime Ministers, should be at liberty to attend its meetings. At the second session of the Conference resolutions brought forward by the Governments of Australia and New Zealand, proposing to give the character of an Imperial Council to the Conference, and a resolution from the Government of Cape Colony on the subject of Imperial Defence, together with a draft resolution concerning the constitution of the Conference which the Chairman, Lord Elgin, submitted, were discussed, without action taken. The discussion was continued at the third and fourth meetings, and the resolution proposed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, being amended in some particulars, was adopted at the end, as follows: