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proportion to population is something like one third of ours. We, at the present moment, are contributing about 33,000,000/. to the Imperial Navy. I forget what the Colonies are subscribing; it is something like half a million. So, as a business proposition it would be a very admirable one for us because, if the money is to be brought into a general fund, and we are to divide it in these proportions, we should get about seven or eight millions of money out of it towards Imperial defence. But that I do not gather to be Mr. Deakin's idea, which is that this money should be spent purely for the purpose of improving transport communication and cables and matters of that kind. That is a very desirable object in itself, as I have already stated, but I do not want to enter upon that again; I adhere to everything I said before. Mr. Churchill points out, too, that the establishment in the Colonies of a service corresponding to our consular service in foreign countries is another scheme which has for its object the developmsnt of the trade of the Empire as a whole. But what does'this proposal of Mr. Deakin's really mean? " It means that the United Kingdom would contribute 4,500,000/. My figure was correct yesterday, but I over-estimated the contribution of the self-governing Colonies, and I find that the Australian Commonwealth would contribute 100,000/., New Zealand 20,000/., Canada 400,000/.— although the population of Canada is only about 1.500,000 above that of the Commonwealth, they would contribute four times as much —Newfoundland would contribute 6,000/.; Cape Colony would contribute 40,000/.; Natal would contribute 26,000/. Now, it is obvious that it is not merely an unfair, but a grossly unfair, contribution as between fhe Mother Country and the Colonies. Mr. DEAKIN : But each spends its own money. Mr. LLOYD GEORGE : And it is also an unfair distribution of burdens as between one Colony and the other. Mr. DEAKIN : Each spends its own money. Mr. LLOYD GEORGE ; We do that now, and are doing it now. We are spending 33,000,000/. upon Naval defence. As I said before, we are willing, if there is a working scheme put forward, to assist in developing communications. But this seems to me to be an unfair, unjust, and unbusinesslike response to the appeal made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr. DEAKIN : Although you vote your own money for your own purposes ? Mr. LLOYD GEORGE : But then Ido not see the object. Either this means what it say's, or it does not. We are to pay 4,500,000/. and the Cape 40,000/. Dr. SMARTT : The foreigner pays, and we do not. Mr LLOYD GEORGE : If we really drag the fiscal question into it, I do not think we shall come to an end. You are to find 40,000/., and Canada is to find 400 000/. You may depend upon it, if you or Canada thought you could get an extra 40,000/. or 400,000/ out of the foreigner, surely you would try to get it Tdo not doubt that at all. But no doubt you have already gone to the limit—the highest point at which you think that revenue is consistent

Fourteenth Day. B May r907.

Imperial Surtax on Foreign Imports. (Mr. Lloyd George.)