We are all for encouraging the internal trade of the
Empire, the great increase of which has been one of the most remarkable economic facts of recent years, but we part from Mr. Amery when he tells us that our Imperial salvation requires a state of fiscal war against the rest of the world. There are some people who would make a new Empire at the risk of antagonizing—remember that the antagonism would extend far beyond mere economic borders—both America and Europe. There are others who would turn Europe into a self-containing and self-sufficing unit also in a state of fiscal war with America. We cannot believe in any of these schemes for the simple reason that they are opposed to the spirit of peace, although we admit the unpleasantly challenging nature of the new American tariffs. Tariffs always provide a plentiful supply of thorns for the flesh of other nations. America is finding this out. She has been startled by receiving protests already from thirty- eight nations.
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