LAND AT LAST. T HE work of the Imperial Conference would
have been well worth doing if there were no other record of it than the appointment of a Royal Commission to report upon the trade of the Empire. The Tariff Reform con- troversy would have evoked far less irritation had it been realized from the first that what is most of all wanted, if it is ever to be brought to a satisfactory issue, is accurate information. Each side has been charged with forgetting that the real object of both English parties is the pro- motion of Imperial prosperity. Free Traders in particular have again and again been credited with an insane love of free imports for their own sake. Better, they have been supposed to say, that the Empire should break up, and Great Britain become one large open space for foreigners to play in, than that a single duty should be levied on imports from foreign countries. There is no need to remind our readers how purely imaginary this picture is. For our part, no doubt, we honestly believe that when the whole' volume of our trade and the consequences of interference with the forces which regulate it are taken into account it will be seen that the balance of advantage is largely on the side of free imports. But we have never refused to be convinced that this is a wrong conclusion to draw from the facts. We have only set out the reasons which have led us to that conclusion and asked that their validity shall be disproved. We do not claim to be exempt from a prejudice in favour of Free Trade. We only plead that the arguments which made Peel a Free Trader against his will ought to be disposed of before we reverse a commercial policy which for two generations has made English trade the wonderful thing it is. When that has been done we shall be quite ready to confess our error and to serve as late enlisted recruits in the Tariff Reform army. We are equally willing to entertain the same opinion of our opponents. We are sure that if we could but make them see the facts of the case as we see them they would come over to our side. It is useless, however, to go on fighting about these facts when they are only half known, and that this is a due description of our present condition in regard to them cannot be better stated than in the reso- lution proposed by Sir Wilfrid Laurier on Friday week and unanimously adopted by the Conference. Who, even of those best qualified to have a reasoned opinion on these subjects, can claim to have full knowledge of the " natural resources of each part of the Empire represented at the Conference" ? Which of us has exhaustively compared the actual development of these resources with that further development which under enlightened legislation they may hope to witness ? What are the " facilities for pro- duction, manufacture, and distribution" possessed by the Mother Country in comparison with her daughter States ? What are "the food and raw material requirements of each " part of this vast Empire, whether in themselves or in connexion with one another ? And then when all this information has been brought together there re- mains the inquiry how far " the trade between each of the different parts has been affected by existing legis- lation in each, either beneficially or otherwise." Until Mr. Harcourt rose it might have been thought that Sir Wilfrid Laurier's list of subjects for the consideration of the Commission was exhausted. It proved, however, that there was one loophole that had to be closed. The inquiry must not begin with any predetermined conclusion. Its object will not be to make England set up a protective tariff or to convince Canada that she ought to throw open her ports to the unrestricted admission of British manu- factures. We may hope, indeed, that the conclusion ultimately arrived at on these subjects, whether in England or in the Colonies, will be cleared and modified by the in- formation which the Commission will bring together. But it will not begin its task with any preconceived intention of making Englishmen Protectionists or the people of the Dominions Free Traders. On this great issue Eng- land and the Dominions must alike be the sole judges of their own interests. But it is not the ultimafe teaching of the facts collected that now concerns us. No attractions that the vision of Free Trade within the Empire may have for us ought to tempt us to exercise any pressure upon Canada to let in English goods free of duty. The inquiry by what methods the trade of the Empire may be improved and extended must be conducted in such a. way as to be " consistent with the existing fiscal policy of each part." No member of the Conference need have any fear of the consequences which the appointment of such a Com- mission may entail upon the Dominion which he represents. However convinced the Commissioners may be that this or that alteration in its fiscal policy would be beneficial alike to itself and to the Empire, it will not be pressed to make any change except so far as its Government is honestly convinced that the change will be to its own advantage. The Commission " is not intended to make recom- mendations as to the policy of the Dominions or of the Mother Country." The sole object will be to provide a storehouse of information, from the study of which all concerned in the inquiry may alike learn in what directions modifications of policy will promote their several interests. What it is open to all of us to hope with confidence is that, as each portion of the Empire becomes better acquainted with what makes for its own welfare, it will turn out that all alike are moving towards the adoption of a common fiscal system. No other proposal could have had a chance of acceptance by the Conference. It is enough merely to imagine the Prime Minister saying the opposite of what he did say yesterday week to see how fatal to harmony such an utterance would have been. He need only have declared that the United Kingdom and the severs Dominions, instead of reinainine each master in its own house, must for the future pursue-such a policy as in the opinion of the majority is best suited to the requirements and conditions of the Empire to have set the Conference by the ears. The Commission is to be simply " an ad- visory body," but it is to be furnished " with a reference as wide as words can make it " and to be composed, so far as the Home Government are concerned, of the ablest men whom they can find to be their representatives. A Royal Commission, meeting in these conditions and having the assistance of the best and most representative men in every part of the Empire—we say " in every part of the Empire " because, though India is not included by name, we cannot doubt that her interests will be in the thoughts of every representative nominated by the Home Government—can hardly fail to collect a mass of information such as has never yet been presented to the people of the Empire. The degree of acceptancewhich the resolution secured cannot be better judged than by the readiness of the representatives of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa to bear their share of the cost. The burden, said Mr. Fisher, the Prime Minister of the Coinsonwealth, " ought not to fall entirely on the United Kingdom," and the reason why it should not fall in this way, as Sir Joseph Ward, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, added, is that the work of the Commission will be " equally for the benefit of the Dominions." A proposal to the cost of which every member of the Conference is eager to contribute may fairly be accepted as calculated to benefit the whole of that vast Empire over which George V. was crowned King on Thursday.
That Mr. Balfour's vision of a future in which a congregation of free and self-governing communities shall feel that they are never more masters of their own fate than when they recognize that they are "parts of a greater whole" may be realized, is our ardent desire. But if that day comes it will, as he said on Saturday, be when each community lives its own life at once in perfect independence and in intimate association with the Empire of which it is a part. As yet, however, things are in a more elementary state. We are only on the threshold of those investigations which will bring to the knowledge of all who are willing to profit by their results the economic basis on which the union of civilized communities so largely rests. It is by the knowledge of their several interests that the Dominions, which form so large a part of the Imperial whole, will learn what sacrifices can safely be made to the idea of unity. It is by such knowledge also that the idea of unity must be harmonized with that of local independence. There is no real incompatibility between the two conceptions—none which will not dis- appear in presence of the knowledge which will be brought together by such a Commission as that contemplated by Sir Wilfrid Laurier and enthusiastically adopted by his colleagues in the Conference.
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