Great Britain at Ottawa
AMERELY casual student of the discussions at Ottawa might be forgiven for thinking that tariff autonomy as there interpreted meant that Great Britain's tariff schedules should be fixed by the Dominions. Australia and South Africa want this country to put on a tariff against Argentine meat. Australia and New Zealand want us to impose duties on Danish dairy produce. Canada demands the exclusion from our shores of Russian wheat and timber. South Africa invites us to tax foreign fruit. All this, let it be recognized at once, is perfectly natural. The Conference could have evolved along no other lines. It might indeed have begun with offers rather than with demands, but both offers and demands have to be laid on the table and it makes little difference which get there first. Since the Dominions have begun by saying what they want, rather than by indicating what they have to offer, it is inevitable that this country should be given for the moment the guise of the milch-cow from whose generous udders each Dominion may draw what it needs in the way of sustenance for its export trade. For the most part the various Dominions are exporters of the same type of commodities, mainly prime commodities like wheat and meat. Inter-Dominion trade, consequently, promises always to be limited. What every Dominion wants is the British market, and that not in equal competition with foreign countries but with the balance tilted more or less decisively in its favour by a tariff on the foreigner. Great Britain, it is true, has to pay more for its imports in consequence, but a similar preference in the markets of Canada, Australia and the rest is its compensation.
That, of course, is the A.B.C. of Dominion preference, but it is well to get down to elementals when we are dis- cussing a bargain that may turn out bad business for one or other of the parties concerned. At present two prin- ciples are in conflict at Ottawa. If the Dominions have their way the net result of the Conference is likely to be an increase of the tariffs of the world, because this country is being asked to put on new duties against the foreigner in order to give a preference to Dominion goods which are admitted free, while the general idea of the Dominions, so far as can be seen, is to favour British trade (as Mr. Bennett proposed in 1930) not by admitting British imports at something lower than their existing tariffs, but by raising their existing tariffs still higher against non- British imports. That, it must be repeated, would aggra- vate still further the evil of tariff-excess from which the whole world is suffering. It would make not for freer trade but for more fettered trade. And against such a solution Mr. Baldwin, as leader of the British Delegation, has so far resolutely set his face. It was never more necessary than at this juncture in the Conference's de- liberations that he should stand fast by the sound prin- ciples he has himself proclaimed. If Ottawa can stimulate inter-Imperial trade, or any other kind of trade, it will have served the interests of the Commonwealth and the world. But if it became merely a source of new exclusions and new discriminations not even those who seemed to be temporarily advantaged would in fact gain permanent benefit. This, moreover, must be said frankly : with all its desire to co-operate to the utmost of its power with the Dominions in every field, this country cannot afford to sacrifice itself to the Dominions. They are young and developing countries. The future is with them in any case, for all they may be suffering, in common with the world, from the depression of the moment. Under no circumstances can we tax the food—be it wheat or meat or butter—of our vast industrial population, even in return for import preferences which will inevitably diminish in value as time goes on, for Canada and Ans.
tralia have made it perfectly clear, as they are fully justified in doing, that their aim is to develop their own manufactures, and to do that they will have to protect them against British imports no less than foreign.
All the cards are not yet on the table at Ottawa. In particular the details of Mr. Bennett's offer of prefer- ence to British goods have not been made public as these lines are being written. Its estimated value to British manufacturers remains to be discovered. Some of the Dominions are hard bargainers, and no blame to them for that. But since much more is being asked of this country than of any Dominion it behoves Mr. Baldwin and his colleagues to be ceaselessly vigilant in their guardianship of Great Britain's interests while they endeavour, as they unquestionably will and unquestion- ably should, to go to the utmost length consistent with that first duty in promoting the trade and the • general prosperity of the Dominions severally and as a whole. These are governing and overruling principles which must not suffer violation. We cannot concentrate on British trade at the expense of Commonwealth trade. But we cannot concentrate, either, on Commonwealth trade at the expense of world trade. If the Dominions call on us to impose fresh taxation on foreign imports, particularly foreign foodstuffs, we must tell them plainly we cannot do that. The right way to confer preferences is to lower existing tariffs in favour of the Dominions, not to put on new ones against the foreigner. If the Dominions make the natural reply that it is only new tariffs on foreign foodstuffs that will help them, then we can only gay with regret that they are asking for a form of help that we cannot give. Canada, fortunately, has dropped her request for wheat preferences or quotas. That • eases the situation considerably. But it does not make it any the more legitimate for us to start taxing Argentine meat or Danish butter. And we cannot for a moment consider depriving ourselves of the vast resources of Russia by any general embargo.
A great deal can be done at Ottawa short of new food taxes. Mechanism can be constructed for keeping traders in every State of the Commonwealth in closer and more intelligent contact with each other. Con- currently with that, new machinery for constant political consultation can be devised. Important steps for the stabilization of exchanges between the States of the Commonwealth can be taken. There is every sign that along these lines results of solid and lasting value will have been achieved before the Ottawa Conference ends. Its first ten days have been altogether encouraging. The atmosphere has been charged alike with cordiality, sincerity and businesslike determination. The spiritual unity of the British Commonwealth of nations was never more manifest. It is because it believes pro- foundly in the reality of that unity and the spirit from which it derives that each member of the Commonwealth is free, without fear of misunderstanding, to proffer its own demands, to expound its own difficulties, to defend its own interests, before the Conference. So far as the conflicting interests can be accommodated they will be. So far as they cannot the decision will be accepted without bitterness and without reproach. By every indication so far forthcoming enough will be achieved at Ottawa in one field or another to write the Conference down as a definite success, marking a new stage in the consolidation of the Empire on a basis the more enduring in that it is only incidentally material.
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