The Dominion. THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1916. THE COMING STRUGGLE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2727, 23 March 1916, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1916. THE COMING STRUGGLE

The somewhat anomalous position seems to have been rcachcci in Great Britain that while the Imperial Government is wholly sympathetic towards current proposals for closer organic union of the Empire, it is hanging back from the one step which above all others would make for progress in that direction—the declaration of a trade policy suited to the needs of the hour and to the prospects by which the Empire is faced. The need for such a declaration is so evident that it is possible to acquit of partisan bias the Tariff lleform newspapers which arc criticising Me. Asquith for refusing to be drawn into a definite statement. The fact that the Morning Fust, a stout champion ol Tariff Reform, has most insistently raised the demand for a definite declaration of trade policy by the Imperial Government may almost be regarded as incidental. For practical purposes the fiscal controversy which cut across British party lines and created such a hubbub in the clays before the war is as dead as' the dodo. It is not now a case of contrasting rival fiscal systems on their merits, but of devising the policy which will best enable the Empire to secure itself in thi days after the war against any dangerous revival of the German menace. At this end of the world, and in the Dominions generally, opinion seems to be undivided as to the proper course- to pursue. It is recognised that the only rational policy is to make every possible preparation to defeat Germany in the trade war which will follow this', war. We must, as Mil. Hughes has said, kill the hope that still buoys Germany up, that after the war she may be able to win back her former position in commerce and industry. To adopt any other policy would bo to invite a second bid by Germany for world domination. There is no need to advocate and defend an anti-Gennan trade policy as a foundation for Imperial growth and development. It is obviously necessary as a simple precaution against a repetition of uie ills which the Empire and its Allies are now suffering. This view, we take it, is held as strongly'in the British Dominions as in France and Russia, and it might bo expected to find acceptance equally in the Mother Country.Yet- the fact stands that tho imperial Government has thus far abstained from committing itself on' the subject. . "The French" we were told the other day, "arc pleased 'and surprised to find that the British Dominions are ahead of the Mother Country in this matter." But the fact which has pleased the French is calculated to awaken an opposite emotion in the Dominions. We cannot afford to enter the coming trade war as unprepared as. we entered the war now raging, and this would inevitably bo our fate if the Imperial Government declined to take the measures which are dictated by common prudence for the protection and expansion of Imperial trade.

At a surface view the statementby Mr. Runciman (President of the Board of Trade) which was cabled •yesterday may seem to meet all demands, but it will hardly bear examination. While Mr. Runciuan declares that peaceful preparation by Germany to a military end will never again be tolerated by England, France, Russia, and Italy, and that we must .prevent Germany again raising her helmet, his speech as it * proceeds is essentially defensive in tone, and promises no such vigorous measures as the case demands. What exactly Mr. RunciJIAN means when he says that the British Empire will never attempt to establish a commercial tyranny, but will resist it by every means, does not appear, but the statement can hardly be taken as endorsing the policy which has been so clearly and forcibly enunciated by Mr. Hughes—a policy essentially aggressive and aiming at the exclusion of the enemy from Imperial markets. Mr. Runcijian's speech is in fact chiefly important by reason of its contrast to-the recent utterances of the Commonwealth Prime Minister. At best it promises a trade war of retaliation and reprisals on Germany, but' even this, it seems, is to be undertaken only because the Central Powers intend to establish a Customs Union on aggressive lines. If it could_ bo supposed that the Imperial Cabinet as a body stood committed to these half-hearted views, the position would bo one to awaken uneasiness and distrust, but matters are certainly not as bad as that The continued silence of Mr. Asquith is an unfavourable sign, but the British Cabinet includes, in its membership the foremost leaders of the Tariff Reform movement. They at_ least may be supposed to entertain no doubts and misgivings regarding necessary measures of trade regulation, and it follows that internal, as well as external, forces are tending to drive the Imperial Government!into the nolicy which the circumstances of the time demand. _ A possible danger exists of ii Cabinet split, more or less on party lines, which would be wholly undesirable at the present stage in tho_ Empire's affairs, but such indications as are visible of the trend of opinioii in the Mother Country afford some ground for hoping that this may be avoided.