407

A—s

unchecked and untrammelled by interference from the other. We have that to start upon, and consequently have been able to discuss in a very frank and friendly manner all sorts of questions. We have witnessed the spectacle of the British Minister in charge of the trade of this country defending at length and in detail the fiscal system—the purely domestic, internal fiscal system of this country from very severe, though perfectly friendly and courteous criticism on the part of the other self-governing communities. If that fund of goodwill to which T have referred had been lacking, if ever a Conference had been called together when there was an actual anticolonial party in existence, when there was really a deep hatred in the minds of a large portion of the people of this country against the Colonies and against taxation which was imposed at the request or desire of the Colonies, then I think it is quite possible that a Conference such as this would not pass off in the smooth and friendly manner in which this has passed off. You would hear recrimination and reproaches exchanged across the table; you would hear assertions made that the representatives of the different States who were parties to the Conference were not really representatives of the true opinion of their respective populations, that the trend of opinion in the country which they professed to represent was opposed to their policy and would shortly effect a change in the views which they put forward. You would find all these undemocratic assertions that representatives duly elected do not really speak in the name of their people, and you would, of course, find appeals made over the heads of the respective Governments to the party organisations which supported them or opposed them in the respective countries from which they came. That appears to me to open up possibilities of* very grave and serious dangers in the structure and fabric of the British Empire, from which T think we ought to labour to shield it. Mv Right Honourable friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has told the Conference with perfect truth—in fact it may have been even an underestimation—that if he were to propose the principle of preference in the present House of Commons it would be rejected by a majority of three to one. But even if the present Government could command a majority upon the subject, they would have no intention whatever of proposing it. It is not because we are not ready to run electoral risks that we decline to be parties to a system of preference; still less is it because the present Government is unwilling to make sacrifices, in money or otherwise, in order to weave the Empire more closely together. T think a very hopeful deflection has been given to our discussion when it is suggested that we may find a more convenient line of advance by improving communications, rather than by erecting tariffs- by making roads, as it were, across the Empire, rather than by building- walls. Tt is because we believe the principle of preference is positively iniurious to the British Empire, and would create, not union, but discord, that we have resisted the proposal. Tt has been a source of regret, T think, that on this subject we cannot come to an agreement. A fundamental difference of opinion on economics, no doubt, makes agreement impossible; but although we regret that. T do not doubt that in the future, when Imperial unification has been carried to a stage which it has not now reached, and will not. perhaps, in our time attain, peonle in that more fortunate age will look back to the Conference of 1007 as a date in the history of the British Empire when one grand wrong turn was successfully avoided. Sir WILFRID LAURIER : Lord Elgin and gentle-men, T think we have spent nearly a week over this subject, and perhaps the time has come now when we may reach a conclusion upon it. At the opening of this debate I stated that, for mv part, T intended at the proper time to move again the resolution which was affirmed by the Conference of 1902. T have listened

Twolfth Day. 7 May 1907.

Preferential Trade. (Mr. Churchill.)