COMMONWEALTH	375
Imperial Constitution, to extend the work of the Statute of
Westminster, and define the position of Mother Country and
Dominions more precisely. Reluctance to dissect a relation which
seems to rest more on feeling than on material facts, has so far
prevented progress in this direction. Differences of opinion
which now lie hid might be brought to the surface by the search
for exact definition. Some machinery of Imperial administration
has, however, proved necessary and usefiil. Each Dominion
maintains in Britain a High Commissioner, whose relations with
the Dominions OflBce resemble those of an Ambassador with the
Foreign Office. It is further the business of the High Com-
missioner's Staff to set before the people in Britain the economic
possibilities of the Dominions, and to encourage trade, investment
and migration. There are also the Imperial Conferences which
have been held at irregular intervals since 1907. Britain is
represented by the Prime Minister, who presides, and by the
Secretaries for the Dominions and for India; Prime Ministers and
other representatives of the Dominions attend. The agenda is
settled by previous communication, and has contained matters
relating to foreign policy and defence, Dominion status, and trade.
In 1932 a special Imperial Economic Conference was held at
Ottawa. Decisions were reached which have had great effect on
the policy of Britain and of the Dominions. The immediate cause
of the conference was the shrinkage of world trade, and consequent
unemployment. There emerged a series of agreements, by which
Britain and the Dominions mutually agreed to grant preferences
to each other's products—i.e., to impose tariffs on foreign goods,
and lesser tariffs or none at all, on goods from other British
countries. The Colohial Empire was also affected by these
decisions; preferences for goods from Great Britain entering the
Colonies were now extended to goods from the Dominions, and
the importation of foreign goods by the Colonies was restricted.
The Ottawa Conference succeeded in enlarging inter-Imperial
trade, and its decisions were welcome at a time when trade of any
kind was slight. The States of the world having failed to achieve a