Letters to the Editor
FREE TRADE WITHIN THE EMPIRE
[To-the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Many are the avenues through which the Safeguarding Diehards are labouring to bring Protection on the country. Safeguarding has become so transparent, that they are now trying to entice the country by the slogan " Trade within the Empire." Loud acclamations are accompanying the Lord Beaverbrook policy that we should confine our food supples to the Colonies and raise tariff walls against the rest of the world.
I am reminded of an address by Sir Felix Schuster at the Bankers' Institute on the occasion of the first agitation for Colonial preference, in which he said that we have to keep in touch with every wheat-growing country for our wheat supplies, so that if one country failed we could fly to another. He further said that if we were confined to Canada, which is the only colony we could draw from in an emergency, the market would lend itself to financial manipulation and cornering, which would bring about periodical famine prices ; and should the Canadian harvest fail at any time, the effect upon this country would be too awful to contemplate. We could not go to our old sources of supply, for other countries would have laid out their land for other purposes. They would not grow wheat for our emergencies. This was the judgment of one of the leading bankers of the day upon food restrictions.
And with regard to manufactured goods : from a long experience of Colonial trade I can vouch that the Colonials are hard-headed business men and will certainly not pay a penny extra for the pleasure of buying from England. The Colonies put no duty on goods they must import and cannot make themselves, but take good care that they will buy from the cheapest market, whether France, Germany, England, or any other country. Directly they can manufacture them- selves, they put on a tariff to shut out competition whether from England or any other country. They may give England a preferential tariff, but make very sure it shall be sufficient to keep her out.
For years we have supplied Australia with tinplates and bought back her tinned fruits and meats in immense quantities. She has now set up her own tinplate plant and has petitioned the Government to put a duty of £5 per ton on English tin- plates to keep them out. This shows that there is no sentiment on business matters amongst the Colonials.
Should this country and the Colonies ever become so insane as to fall into the lap of Lord Beaverbrook's family circle it will inevitably give rise to family squabbles, bickerings, and jealousies between the Colonies which will do more than any- thing else to stimulate an agitation for independence. We have maintained the loyalty and affection of our Colonies by giving them absolute freedom in developing their resources untrammelled by restrictions.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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