A. 5

280

Ninth Day. 1 May 1907.

those who, like ourselves, are in charge of a self-governing portion of the Empire, namely, England itself, and in that respect I will not presume for a moment to interfere; but I want to say that the commercial policy of the powerful nations with which it is necessary for Great Britain to be in many respects in touch is a policy which in the nature of things is hostile to the self-governing Colonies. What I look forward to, though I do not know how long it will be, but I believe it will come, is the time when Great Britain and her Colonies will enter into a preferential system of trading, and when they have achieved the position of being in a group of preferential trading countries, then they can go with complete justification and with great hope of success upon equal terms, to any of these other powerful countries that have their high tariffs against us now, and ask upon fair terms for reciprocal treaties, not for England herself but for England and her self-governing Colonies, on matters which all would be prepared to consider, and which would enable the bringing about of fair conditions of trading between the Old World and the newer one. These foreign countries* now in their fiscal systems hit the Colonies all the time. They do not hit England in the matter of external trade from England in your natural products, because you do not send them out of the country. You are naturally a large consuming people and you require to import from over the sea food stuffs very largely indeed. Other countries do not in that respect hit you in the same way as they hit the self-governing Colonies. My own belief is that if the time arrives, as I believe it will, when we can have a system of preferential trade between ourselves, we could, as commonsense, practical people, in charge of our respective countnes, without any doubt enter into reciprocal trade relations as a whole; and say the Germans or the Americans would then, in respect of certain articles, be prepared to allow them into their country in return for certain other articles being allowed into ours. Italy and France would have to do the same. We should then be all on fair terms. I honestly believe that it could be done without injury to the masses of the people of England. If I thought it was going to injure the masses of the people of this country, I for one would not be favourable to it. I honestly believe preferential trade within our own countries would vitalise and add to the strength and greatness of the Empire. Sir WILLIAM LYNE : Does your preference to Great Britain extend right through your tariff, or does it discriminate ? Sir JOSEPH WARD : It does not go right through our tariff. Upon a number of articles which are named we have a higher rate against foreign countries, and allow England to come in on the free list for a number of articles that we impose duty on against a foreign country. Sir WILLIAM LYNE : Do you charge any items the same to Great Britain as to foreign countries ? Sir JOSEPH WARD : Yes, some of them. Mr. ASQUITH : A good many; the large majority, I think. Sir JOSEPH WARD : I read them all out from the return. The whole of the information is here. Mr. ASQUITH : The preference only extends to about a dozen or a score things at the outside. Speaking from recdllection, 20 per cent, of the total British imports are affected by the preference ?

Preferential Trade. (Sir Joseph Ward.)