Memorandum by the Irish Delegation regarding the Resolutions and
Conclusions of the Imperial Conference and the Imperial Economic Conference

The Imperial Conference is a consultative body, and has no legislative or executive status. The participant ministers are responsible solely to the Governments and Legislatures of their respective states. The acts and recorded proceedings of the Conference must accordingly be understood to be purely of the character of advice and information and to have no binding force on the governments or on the participant ministers.

It must follow from this that the acts and proceedings of the Conference should not in future take the form of resolutions. Though a resolution of the Conference does not bind the governments of the states it may appear to commit a minister to a responsibility other than his constitutional responsibility.

Moreover, a difference in opinion may arise between the participant members on the subject of a resolution, and it is not desirable that such differences should be forced without necessity to become a matter of decision and record and eventual publicity.

It should also be understood that, in adopting the Reports of its Committees, the Conference does no more than place such Reports on record for the advice and information of the respective governments and legislatures.