Trade and Tariffs The Council of the League of Nations
will hold its first meeting of the year next Monday. No subject on the Agenda arouses more interest than the British proposal for a Conference to establish what is loosely called a " tariff truce." Out of thirty-two replies to the original invitation twenty-six are in favour of participation in the preliminary Conference, and these include all except two of the European States. South Africa, Australia, Egypt, India and New Zealand have declined the invitation. Obviously, then, the United States of Europe idea has already acquired a certain foothold. We are glad to see also that three States from the American Continent propose to be represented. No country stands to gain more than Great Britain by an international agreement not to raise tariffs for the next two or three years, although the object of the promoters of the Conference is not, of course, to help British trade, but simply to ensure a pause during which clear thinking may dispel some of the mists created by economic nationalism.
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