We are amused, though hardly surprised, to find that our
contemporary, the Economist, has at last discovered that the present Government is not a Free Trade Government, but one which long ago abandoned the principles of Free Exchange in matters other than imports, and is now even abandoning them there. What has opened the eyes of the Economist is the action of the Development Commissioners in giving bounties in the guise of " educational expenditure."
"The fact remains that a definite policy of subsidizing 'an infant industry' is contemplated, and it makes no difference in what language its authors seek to conceal it. Apart from the general principle involved, we fail to see why this particular industry should be singled ont for favour. Why, we should like to ask Mr. Lloyd George and the Commissioners, should the beet plants from which sugar is extracted receive State support in pre- ference to any other root crop, such as the potato or the mangold, to which our soil is at least equally suited ? If beet sugar can be produced profitably in England, by all means let it be grown—at the grower's expense. But if we dislike the Commissioners' pro- posals, the refusal of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to impose an Excise duty on beet sugar to balance the import duty is still more obnoxious from the Free Trade point of view. The fact that the proceeds of such an imposition would be insignificant does not mitigate the mischief of infringing the cardinal principles of a Free Trade system."
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