517

A—s

who spend it only as they think fit for their own interest. If they do not think a project is in their own interest, they do not spend it; if they do think it is for their own interest, they spend what may be necessary upon it. They do that only when they believe the benefits to be gained will reward them for their own investment of their own fund. Mr. WINSTON CHURCHILL : But meanwhile they would have to raise the sum of money every year by the taxation of the year, and if they did not spend it, it would accumulate steadily in a fund. Mr. F. R. MOOR : Why accumulate it ? You could earmark it. Mr. DEAKIN : I have only put forward this method of arriving at an Imperial fund in a tentative and experimental way. As I thought I took care to say, lam not wedded to this particular form of contribution. What I want to see are Imperial contributions for Imperial purposes, to be approved by each Legislature, and I take it that the fact that each Legislature had to give its approval to the expenditure of its own money is quite a sufficient guarantee that it will be expended fairly according to the judgment of those composing that Legislature. In fact, that is the way we spend all our money now. Mr. WINSTON CHURCHILL: Then, under your proposal, there would be no obligation for any of the parties to the union to make any payments in pursuance of the agreements into which they have entered. Mr. DEAKIN : The obligation on each party would be to set apart whatever sum was mutually agreed upon for Imperial purposes for a given period, or until the arrangement was altered by consent. That would be binding for the period named, but whether any or all of that fund shall be applied, to what purpose it shall be applied, and in what proportion as compared to the other contributors it shall be applied, would rest wholly under the control of the Legislature concerned. So that this proposition would do nothing more, if adopted, than indicate one means by which revenue might be raised for Imperial purposes by all the Dominions, unless they chose to substitute equal subventions; I do not put it any higher than that. I said this or some similar proposal would give you an Imperial fund for business purposes that would be dealt with in a business-like way. When I have said that, it seems to me I have disposed of the whole of the argument of- the President of the Board of Trade. He persists in assuming that I propose that these Legislatures should in some mysterious manner be moved to vote their own money for unbusiness-like proposals, and in unfair proportions. We are to get all the benefit and the United Kingdom is to bear all the loss of all our agreements whatever they may be. I had no such proposition in my mind, and would not support a proposition which would work out in that fashion. It is left to each Legislature to decide how they should spend their money, and how much money they should spend. What better security can there be? Again, even if the argument had discovered a defect in the particular system of raising the money, it does not point to a defect in the principle I am concerned to maintain. This is, that if we remain as we are, dependent upon individual negotiations between one or two governments concerned in occasional arrangements, we shall be in no better position after this Conference than we were before it. I have submitted this in order to see if we can discover some means by which an Imperial fund may be raised for Imperial purposes, without diminishing in any way the self-governing powers of the different dominions. They are to remain just as free and independent in their financial control

Fourteenth Day. 9 May 1907.

Imperial Surtax on Foreign Imports. (Mr. Deakin.)