News of the Week
THE British Delegates at Ottawa seem to be finding some difficulty in securing from the Canadian Prime Minister a statement of the concessions Canada would be prepared to make in return for a preference for Canadian exports to this country. That is not altogether surprising, for the Imperial Conference raises serious internal as well as external problems for Mr. Bennett. His own industrialists need both firm and delicate handling. On wool, cotton and leather their talks with trade representatives from this country have led to no clear result except the conviction that if any concessions are to be forthcoming they will have to be imposed by the Canadian Government in face of solid opposition from the manufacturers. Mr. Bennett's list of commodities on which concessions are suggested is understood to be more impressive in its length than in its volume, for the number of items included is out of all proportion with the amount of business involved. For this country the crux of the Conference is meat-taxes, for the idea of a wheat preference, if not abandoned altogether, has dropped very much into the background. That may well be a vital internal issue here, as preferences on manufac- tured goods are for Mr. Bennett, for it is doubtful in the extreme whether the Liberal members of the Cabinet would stretch the agreement-to-differ accord to cover food-taxes. Mr. Baldwin is believed to be reluctant to tax food. Mr. Runcirnan's opposition, unless he has abandoned the principles he has consistently pro- claimed, is more resolute still. For Sir Herbert Samuel and other Liberal Ministers the issue could hardly fail to be decisive.
