Ottawa Prospects No Minister can ever have talked so much
about any subject as Mr. J. H. Thomas has about Ottawa and said so little. That is far from being a disparagement of Mr. Thomas. He has no doubt said all he wanted to say. He is going to Ottawa with an open mind and means to go unpledged. Mr. Baldwin, on Tuesday, was more explicit. He wants the utmost possible in the way of Free Trade within the Empire. No one will dissent from that, provided the aim is, as there is every reason to believe it to be in -Mr. Baldwin's case, to get tariffs between members of the Commonwealth lowered and not to get tariffs against- other countries raised in order to create a Dominion Preference. On the whole question- Lord Hailsham has very wisely sounded a note of warning against the idea that this country can provide a market for all the raw materials of the Dominions, or the Dominions a market for all the commodities British fac- tories can turn out. The foundation fact is that Canada and 'Australia at any rate are determined to develop their secondary industries and protect them against British competition no less than foreign. Within the limits im- posed by that declared resolve a good many mutually beneficial agreements may be reached at Ottawa. But the limits had better be recognized from the outset.
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