It seems that " regulation " is to become the
com- forting phrase of Labour. Regulation which will inci- dentally admit tariffs but will depend upon several other methods of cohesion clearly postulates some sort of permanent council or staff. This has been provided for in the memorandum and we hope that the Imperial Conference will tackle the question. A Permanent Secretariat with its necessary branches is indispensable. There is evidently a long road to travel before the industrial organization of the Empire can be complete. The Dominions have as yet shown no sign of being willing to remove, though they may reduce, the anti-British tariffs which protect their infant industries. In our judgment, however, it would be blameworthy in anyone to cling so uncompromisingly to Protection on the one side or to Free Trade on the other as to condemn any scheme which embodied a general Imperial agreement. Agreement between Great Britain and all the Dominions upon any policy of trade development, organization, concentration, or regulation—call it what you please— would be in itself a tremendous fact and a powerful tonic. We are content to wait for the Imperial Conference, though those whose first inclination is, like
ours, towards Free Trade will, of course, do what they can to prevent tariffs being unnecessarily applied. On a card vote the memorandum was adopted by 1,878,000 votes to 1,401,000. * * * *
