I A.—6a,

and this would clearly cover the question of tariffs generally and their effects oh trade between different parts of the Empire. He was referring here simply to the consideration of the effectiveness of a tariff in actual existence : the effectiveness of a preference, or, for example, of the proportion of Empire labour and material laid down as the minimum to enable imported goods to benefit by Empire preference. Such questions involve the consideration of a great number of facts, anei it might well be that a Government would wish to invite the assistance of the Committee in ascertaining and considering how far the object of its tariff was, in practice, being achieved, or how far some particular complaint as to the operation of the tariff was justified, or whether the tariff was adequate or inadequate. It must, however, he pointed out, be clearly unelerstooel that questions of this kind could on no account be referred to or considered by the Committee except at the specific request eif the Government concerned. It would be an impossible position, and would simply break the Committee up, if it were suggested that any Government which thought it had a grievance against some other Government of the Empire was at liberty to have questions of this kind considered by the Committee. Subject to that understanding, he referred to a number of other questions as instances of the kind of question which the Committee might consider: dumping depreciated exchanges, investment of capital in the British Empire, the- operations of trusts or monopolies. He also pointed out that the detail work of any Economic Conference which might be held in the future might be reduced if a number of minor matters which would otherwise have to be dealt with by the Conference were investigated by the Committee. There would also inevitably be: questions which the present Conference would have carried to a certain point, but which had not been exhaustively considered and finally disposed of, and the existence of a Committee which could carry on the investigation of these ciuostions would prevent a future Conference having to take them up all eiver again. Mr. Bruce did not suggest that the Committee weiulel itself elo all the work of investigation : it weiuld be able to enlist the services of other people to furnish reports, anei so on. He thought that having regard to the importance of such a Committee it would probably be able to command the services of almost any person whom the constituent Governments would desire to invite to sit upon it. Proposal welcomed by Great Britain. The Chairman said that, on behalf of the British Government, he whole-heartedly welcomed the piroposal put forward by Mr. Bruce. He hael purposely at the outset suggested that this matter woulel be more conveniently discussed towards the close of the Conference, because he had felt that as the Conference went on two things would become plain. First, there was a general determination to make inter-Imperial trade: a growing reality, and for that purpose, not only Government action, arising immediately out of the Conference, but detailed questions of administration, anei (still nuire important perhaps), questions arising out of the day-to-day work of producers, manufacturers, and traders throughout the Empire would have to be dealt with ; and it would be tho duty of the Committee to see that these matters were not pigeon-holed. Secondly, he felt;, and the e:vent had justified it, that the Conference had had to deal with a number of matters which might have be:en settled, some of them as much as two years ago, if the machinery had been in existence. Although these were not big questions, it was very important to the trade of the Empire that they should be settled as quickly as possible, and the moment they had got round a table they had been able to deal with them. He: referred to such questions as samples, Customs formalities, trade catalogues, and licenses for commercial travellers. He agreed with Mr. Bruce that another matter which might well come up was the question of marketing. This was a question of as much interest to producers in this country as to producers in the Dominions, but the present Conference, with the amount of business before it and the limited time at its disposal, could not hope to deal with it exhaustively. Case for a Standing Body as against " ad hoc " Committees. It had never been contemplated that a body should be set up having executive powers. The Committee would be an Advisory Committee on the lines of the Imperial Shipping Committee, responsible to each of the constituent Governments, and its duty would be purely to deal with matters on which those Governments desired its opinion and advice. It might be urged that such matters could be dealt with by ad hoc Committees, but these woulel by no means meet the; ease: : it would mean interminable delays. The question would arise every time whether it was worth while to establish an Advisory Committee for the particular problem in question. Moreover, with ad hoc Committees the advantage would be lost of the continuity which belongs to a Committee constantly dealing with the same kind of eprestions, and of the authority anil prestige which such a Committee, although it has no executive power, can acquire by steadily carrying on its work and arriving with all the force of its authority at unanimous recommendations. Personnel : Strong Unofficial Element desirable. He thought it very important that the Committee should have both official and unofficial members, and that the: unofficial element should be strongly re;presentee!. It was not too much to say that the present Conference formed a landmark in the: development of our inter-Imperial trade relations, and he was perfectly certain that a Committee of the kind proposed would be: welcomed in business and manufacturing circles as a practical step. He agreeei with Mr. Bruce that the Committee would command, the services of anybody whom it might wish to enlist. Canada opposed to Establishment of Economic Committee. Mr. Graham said that, though he did not wish to interfere with the views of any members of the Conference, he must say candidly that he had not been convinced of the wisdom or necessity of such

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