Ottawa in Practice The Ottawa agreements are not working well
so far as Canada is concerned. A consignment of her wheat, sent by way of Buffalo and New York, has been refused a preference by our Customs authorities for lack of proof that the grain received by the consignees at Liverpool was actually the same as that which crossed. the Canadian frontier. The shipment of Canadian grain in bulk by the winter route across American territory is thus. hindered by the official reading of the law ; and the Canadian farmers stand to lose their preference. This creates the greater dissatisfaction because they, like our exporters, are hard hit by Mr. Bennett's high protective tariff on necessaries, imposed in the interest of the industrial districts of Eastern Canada. The duty on printed cottons, to give one example, was 61 per cent. ad valorem before Ottawa and is now 58.5 per cent. as the result of a derisory concession. Thanks to this Protection and the maintenance of the gold standard, the farmers, sell very cheap and buy very dear, and there are signs of their becoming extremely restive under the handicap. Mean- while mystery prevails regarding the rumoured barter of Canadian cattle and hides for Soviet oil and anthracite. Mr. Bennett, who damns all.trade with Russia as trafficking with evil, has denied the deal from mid-ocean, but his Ministers seem to have gone pretty far with it in his absence.
Previous page
