The only person to sign the peace treaties for both World War I and World War II, he took part in the race and rights discussions at British
Imperial Conferences 1917-23, and the first session of the United Nations in 1946.
CONTENTS I The Inter Se Doctrine II Imperial Treaties: Territorial Extent III World War I: The Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations IV The 1923 and 1926 Imperial Conferences V Inconsistency with Actual International Experience VI Treaty-Making Practice in the 1920s and 1930s VII The Period after World War II VIII Treaty-Making: Conclusion IX The Settlement of Disputes: The World Court X Acceptance of the World Court's Jurisdiction XI A Special Dispute Settlement Process for the Commonwealth?
The fact that this formula encompassed on its face not only 'treaties' in a formal sense, such as the ones contemplated by the Imperial Conferences, but also (and on the same footing) the far more extensive category of 'international engagements', meant that it necessarily swept up as well the intergovernmental agreements which the Imperial Conferences liked to envisage as limited to technical or administrative matters.
(28) Colonial and imperial conferences declined to embrace the most ambitious versions of imperial citizenship and eventually the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914 affirmed the powers of dominion governments to police and manage their own borders and populations.
(29) For the colonial conferences of the 1890s and 1900s and the imperial conferences of 1909 and 1911, see the summaries in Maurice Ollivier, ed., The Colonial and Imperial Conferences from 1887 to 1937 (Ottawa: Edmond Cloutier, 1954), vols.
Unfortunately there is not much in the way of pan-European comparisons or even a look at the relationship between Ireland and the United Kingdom, save for instances regarding Imperial conferences and financial policy (references to Labour in the UK are useful, but brought in suddenly towards the end).
Meehan tries, as one might expect, to reevaluate O'Higgins as a supreme pragmatist and even go so far as to posit his concept of a "Dual Monarchy" Kingdom of Ireland, mooted by O'Higgins at an Imperial Conference in 1926, as a credible attempt to reconcile Republican aspirations of a united Ireland.
Time and again negotiations were launched, often at one of the many
imperial conferences held between 1887 and 1937, but Ottawa's insistence that our industries be afforded some protection, its reluctance to seriously commit resources to defend the Empire and, as important, London's refusal to give the colonies a say in policy making, meant that imperial tariff preference would remain just a good idea.
The British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act of 1914 established a "common code" of nationality throughout the empire, and despite lengthy discussions on this matter at the Imperial Conferences in 1923, 1926, and 1930, and by a special conference that met in the autumn of 1929, it proved impossible to secure unanimous agreement to changes to this "common code." The deadlock occurred at a time when the relationship between Britain and the dominions was evolving toward the more egalitarian arrangements that were reflected in the 1931 Statute of Westminster.
(19) Nevertheless, when the Imperial Conference committee on nationality met for a second session on 3 November 1926, Patrick McGilligan, the minister for industry and commerce, explained that the Irish delegation was prepared to enable women who married aliens to retain British nationality for a temporary period in order to prevent them from becoming stateless.
They include transcripts from Japanese
imperial conferences, diplomatic correspondence, drafts of possible compromises, and the declaration of war that Japan never actually transmitted to the U.S.
6, an
imperial conference was convened to approve a timetable for war mobilization in the event of a breakdown in U.S.-Japanese diplomatic talks.