An Ambiguous Pledge On the general question of tariffs au
answer given by the Under-Secretary of the Board of Trade on Wednesday opens up a grave prospect if it means what it seems to mean. Tariffs in Europe have been carried to such a point that at last the conviction that something must be done to bring them down has become universal, and there is solid hope of fruitful international discussions very early next year. But Major Colville now undertakes that no fiscal arrangements shall be made with foreign countries likely to prejudice any future arrangements with the Empire. The first opportunity for arrangements w:th the Dominions will be at the Imperial Economic Conference of next July. How long that conference will last no one knows. But if the Government has deliberately closed the door on any fiscal agreement with any European country for the next nine or ten months, as the Conserva- tives who cheered Major .Colville assumed, it proclaims itself alarmingly blind to the situation in Europe and its reactions on this country. * , .
