CANADA AND PREFERENCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2079, 14 May 1907, Page 4

CANADA AND PREFERENCE.

IMPRACTICABLE TILL BRITAIN IS CONVERTED. A LOYALTY AND A DISLIKE.

Mention was made in recent cablegrams of tho fact that tho Premier of Canada, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, was tho first at tho Imperial Conference to recognise that preference is impossible. Tho attitude of Sir Wilfrid Laurier on tho subjoct of the practicability of preference is summed up very simply in a conversation which appears in Mr John Foster Fraser’s “Canada as It Is.” Tho author had mentioned to Sir Wilfrid that Mr. Balfour,spoaking at Edinburgh, had advocated an Imperial Conference to discuss preference. “Sir Wilfrid dismissed it as unnecessary from a Canadian point of view. I asked him why. ‘Bocauso,’ ho answered, ‘at tho Colonial Conference held in London in 1902, I definitely stated on bolialf of Canada that wo wero ready to discuss with Britain what articles wo can give you a preference on, and what articles you can give us a preference on. Canada is in favor of preference. Is Great Britain.? Till wo know that, what is tlio good of having another conference?” Writing of tlio Canadian manufacturers’ attitude to jiroferoncc, Mr Fraser writes: “Lot this bo clearly 'understood: bo will make no trade preference which in his opinion would injure him commercially. Ho smilos at any suggestion that Britain should bo tlio manufacturing country and Canada remain an. agricultural country, buying our manufactures. . . Ho, though lie won’t say it publicly, 1 is not jiarticularly enthusiastic ovor the preference already given to Britain, if it is sufficient to lot British goods enter into active competition with Canadian goods.

. . Tho Canadian, quite wisely from his jioint of view, because lie comes late into the contest as a manufactrirer, guards liiiiiself with heavy tariffs. If bo makes a preference to England it is not out of jiatriotic affection to allow the Englishman to come in with a better article and undersell him. He will put a duty of 30 per cent against the United States, and allow British goods to come in at 20 per cent.! That is a preference in favor of the. Old Country. But the Canadian, while willing enough to give it, likes to know that the 20 por cent duty is still high enough to save the manufacturer in the Dominion from active competition at the hands of the British manufacturer.”

“Canada,” observed Mr. Fraser, “could not stand alone. She knows that if she broke loose from Great Britain, slio woud bo swallowed up by the States within a generation. And Canadian dislike of the States almost equals Canadian loyalty to the Empire.”