13 JANUARY 1906, Page 3

Mr. Martin, a leading Liberal Canadian politician, and recently Prime

Minister of British Columbia, contributes a valuable letter to the Daily Chronicle of Thursday on the attitude of Canada towards Preferential trading. Premising that Mr. Chamberlain's proposed duty on wheat would be valueless to the Canadian farmer—who can always find a market for his grain, often before the wheat is cut—unless it raised the price of wheat at Liverpool, Mr. Martin deals effectively with Mr. Chamberlain's suggestion that a prefer- ence on Colonial wheat would result in a preference given by Canada to British manufactures. He asserts that the Canadian Manufacturers' Association, which strongly supports Mr. Chamberlain's Fiscal policy, is engaged in a crusade for higher Protective duties in Canada, with a view to exclude as far as possible all foreign manufactured goods, including British goods ; and will never consent to the reduction of the present Canadian tariffs against British goods. All they offer is that when the prohibitive point is reached, a still higher tariff should be enforced against the United States and other foreign manufacturers than against British manu- facturers.