22 DECEMBER 1923, Page 3

If this is to be the rule the Dominion Prime

Ministers (who come as it is at the greatest inconvenience to them. selves and their countries) will hesitate to come in future, and a great instrument of Imperial organization will lose its value. In our judgment even the strongest Free Traders ought to accept the preferences already proposed, on the ground that they are worth paying for. /Wet all, though they may involve some slight reduction in the total volume of our trade and some slightly higher prices, the matter is not a large one. The important thing is never to seem by a single act to let the Dominions feel that they have been played with or misled.