AN INDISCREET EMISSARY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 452, 10 March 1909, Page 6

AN INDISCREET EMISSARY.

The leaders of the tariff reform campaign have completely misjudged public opinion in the overseas Statos of the Empire if they imagine that their cause can be advanced by such foolish Words as their agent has been giving utterance to in Melbourne. This gentleman is reported to-day as having assured the members of the Imperial Federation League that "the British Government at present is a menagerie of incompetence, and that the members of it are angels of incompetence, crowned with a halo of sanctimonious humbug." "He only wished," he went on, "that the Mother Country thought as well of the colonies as the colonies thought of the Mother Country. There was no doubt that colonials thought twice as well of Englishmen as Englishmen thought of colonials." It is unfortunately a fact that the British press has given far greater prominence to the sayings of the wilder kind of Imperialists in the colonies than to the opinions of those colonials —and they arc the effective majority— who prefer to leave Britain's fiscal policy alone, on the principle that it is as improper to hector Great Britain as it would be for British people to hector the colonies. But when every allowance is made for the effect that the ardour of a few noisy colonials might have upon the extremists amongst the tariff reformers, it is difficult to understand how Mr.. Burgoyne could conclude that the colonies would enjov hearing a violent partisan assault upon the party in power in Great Britain. The best kind of Imperialist in tliis quarter of the world,

whether lie approves or disapproves in the abstract the policy of the British Government, will feel nothing but displeasure at the implication that he knows and cares so little for the proprieties as to admit partisan bitterness to the temple of Empire. It wonltj -o very pleasant if \vc could feel quite sure that the tariff reform movement were in thoroughly good hands, but there have not been wanting signs that it is not in good hands, and that the Empire is not the first consideration of the tariff reform enthusiasts. What kind of cause is it, may fairly be asked, which requires for its success that an Englishman shall cross the seas in order to tell the colonics that they ai'e thought nothing of in Britain and to hint that the colonies think too highly of Britain and the British? Mr. Bukcoyne's mission appears to be to convince Australia that it is foolish in having so dear a regard for a Frcctradc Motherland. That . does not strike us, to consider the matter merely as one of method, as the best means of preparing Australia to withdraw her affection, or at any rate to moderate it, until the Motherland alters her fiscal creed. The tariff reformer, who never has the Empire out of his mouth, should, above all persons, realise that it is a poor kind of Empire which requires customs duties and fiscal arrangements to keep its soul and spirit alive. It may be as well to state once more, for the benefit of the zealots, exactly what the attitude of the colonies should be, and generally is, towards the fiscal controversy in Great Britain. It is this: that we shall give what preference we can to British products, and leave Britain to do exactly as she chooses. We may hope for a return, but we shall not attempt to insist on anything; and, above all, we shall decline to take sides in the party conflicts of the Mother Country. Some time ago a prominent Canadian wrote a letter to a London newspaper, in the course of which ho made these observations : "We have foreseen for years the general decadence which now seems to be sotting in on the Mother Country through Frectradc, which, although once an advantage, is now a curse. . . . The loss of prestige of Groat Britain in Canada in the last seven years is quite marked, and I am much impressed by the warning of your correspondent. . We have been very patient, have waited nearly twelve years, always hoping to see Great Britain 'wake up,' but now the danger increases every month." The Toronto Globe's criticism of this letter expresses admirably the right view for the colonies to take. It declares that the writer of the letter, was manifestly impertinent and offensive in interfering with British politics, and that Canada "is doing no more than its barest duty in protesting against the Dominion being used to club people in Great Britain back to a tax on their foodstuffs." The Globe rightly objects to the policy of "using the impatient, one-eyed Imperialism of men like Colonel Dcnison to further a campaign against Frectradc and the present Government in Great Britain." That is the attitude of all sober Imperialists in this quarter of the world, and the tariff reform leaders would do well to realise this fact.