IMPERIAL PREFERENCE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1565, 8 October 1912, Page 5

IMPERIAL PREFERENCE.

PRESENTATION TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN. ■ ■ At yesterday's meeting of the Council of the Chamber of Commerce a circular letter was received on the question of honouring Mr. Chamberlain, ns piopounder of tho Imperial preference policy, on his next birthday, with ft present to be subscribed to in all parts oi the Empire.' The letter ran :—

, . •'4l Bclgrave Square, S.W. "Dear Sir, —May I ask you to lay this communication before your committee, alid, if they approve, before your members? I believe that the subject must interest them as much as it interests us .at Home, but if some do not as yet share our faith in tho policy of Imperial preference, none can view it as a question alien to fellow Briton?, divided from us by space, though not by kin or interest. This is. ivhy I make no further apology for approaching your committee through you. Now that six years have elapsed since Mr. Chamberlain took an activo part in political controversy, it is more easy for his fellow countrymen to see in the perspective of history the magnifcudo of the task he undertook, and the measure of achievement already effected, on foundations to broadly laid. His policy of Imperial the policy ■of the Empire in all the self-governing sisterStates. Thanks to him, the feeling of cohesion between these younger nations nhd the Motherland became yearly more intimate, until it culminated in'tjie Canadian oUotiou of last Septomber. Nothing is lacking from the world-spanning arch of the integration but the keystone, and that will be dropped into place'by tho Mother Country when our electorates are given a similar Opportunity, which cannot far long bo delayed. Again, in the Mother Country it is now widely seen in spite of frantic efforts to chseure our vision, that we must choose between securihg an adequate wage for suitable employment on the ono hand, or else persist in costly palliatives, which increase the evil they only pretend I to alleviate. Through all these- years the single-minded courage, with which Mr. Chamberlain upheld the ideal he knew to be sound has appealed to all, no less than the noble f-olf-abnegatioi that marked tho outset of his mission for the future pf our Empire and tho manhood of our race. At a dinner given on Friday, July 8, in honour of Mr. Chamberlain, it was felt that multitudes throughout the United Kingdom, and indeed throughout the Empire, would wish to join in tho celebration of his birthday. That suggestion has taken shape in the proposal that contributions of ono shilling, accompanied by the donor's nam", should be presented to Mr. Chamberlain for such an object as he may choose,. in witness of the fact that his appeal to his countryme.i has reached their hearts.- This was the origin of the Chamberlain birthday fund, which reBtiltecl in a small but rcnrcsent.tlivc committee being formed, with myself aR chairman to carry out • the idea. Already our expectations have been surpassed. -In addition to a ready response, many ttousands of subscription cards, representing 20s. each, are in the hands of collectors, whose enthusiasm adds daily to the amount of the fund. . . ." The letter is signed by George Wvndham.

The chairman (Mr. A. E. Msibin) stated that the covering; letter merely requested that th; list should be allowed to lie on the table. As the letter referred to what was really a political matter, it was not one that rould coneern the Chamber. Tt was decided that the list be allowed to lie on the table.