The Canadian representatives have submitted a smaller list of articles
on which they offer us advantages than was hoped for ; no doubt they resisted pressure even on those. But wide differences of opinion seem to have arisen over the estimates of the value of the advantages offered. For instance, it is said that they estimated that Great Britain would gain trade worth £12,000,000 a year in the iron and steel industries by accepting what was offered. The British experts could only see prospects of one sixth of that gain. If there is anything like this margin in other spheres :the difficulties of agreement must be very great. Mr. Baldwin is known to have signed a letter to Mr. Bennett asking the Canadian Government to consider making a more generous offer and supporting his plea with facts and figures. We believe that he has also on behalf of the whole delegation again pressed the point that he made in his speech at the opening of the Conference, viz. : that we do not want to be offered as an advantage to Great Britain a promise that the foreigners' duties shall be raised. We have not much faith in that form of increased preference and any general increase of duties is what we and most other people have been denouncing in Europe at every international meeting. From all that we hear, the com- bination of Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Runciman in their leadership, seems to give their colleagues as complete -satisfaction as it gives us pleasure to hear of it.
