The practical object for which the Press Conference strove most earnestly was a cheapening of telegraphic communication, by cable or wireless, between the distant parts of the Empire, to the end that there may be an ampler publication of news from each division of it in every other. It received strong assurances of coöperation from the Imperial Government in its efforts to accomplish this end. To a deputation which waited on him, the Premier, Mr. Asquith, said: "Your Conference, if I may venture to say so, has very wisely appointed a standing committee to deal with that matter. The Post Office and other Government departments concerned will be anxious to assist and to keep themselves in touch with this committee by information and intercommunication and in all other ways that may be practicable. I think it will be the solid and substantial result of your deliberations on this very great Imperial necessity that in regard to the development of electric communication between different parts of the Empire we shall now have on the side of the Press a body formally organized and constantly existing with which we can enter into necessary communication, and by mutual discussion and reference, having regard to the various considerations to which I have already adverted, we may accelerate the developments of what we all agree to be one of the first requisites of an Empire such as ours—a cheap, a certain, a constant, a convenient, and a universally accessible system of electric communication." THE BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1909 (July-August). Imperial Defence Conference. See (in this Volume) War, The Preparations for: Military and Naval. THE BRITISH EMPIRE: A. D. 1909 (September). Congress of Empire Chambers of Commerce. A Congress of Chambers of Commerce, representing all parts of the Empire, which was assembled at Sydney, New South Wales, on the 14th of September, 1909, gave much of its discussion to the proposition that the several parts of the Empire should afford preferential treatment to each other in their several markets, on a basis of reciprocity, and adopted resolutions to the effect that the Congress "urges upon the Governments of the Empire that they should treat this matter as of present practical importance, and that the organizations represented at this Congress pledge themselves to press their respective Governments to take such action at the next Imperial Conference as will give effect to the principle advocated in this resolution." This was carried on individual voting, by 81 votes to 31. On voting by chambers, the resolution was passed with 60 for, 8 against, and 11 neutral.