CANADA AND THE EMPIRE

Horowhenua Chronicle, 21 March 1911, Page 3

CANADA AND THE EMPIRE

! A PESSIMISTIC VIEAY. I BY THE COMMONWEALTH | TREASURER. DISINTEGRATION OK THE EMPIRE. [nV ELECTRIC TELEGUAPH--COPYRIGIIT J [PER PREBS ASSOCIATION, j SYDNEY, March 20. Sir William Lyne, Treasurer of the. Commonwealth, interviweed on arrival said: that after discussing the Cairadiaii-Aniericau reciprocity arrangements- with the business men of Canada, he returns with the conviction that if the reciprocity agreement is ratified by the Dominion House of Commons, Canada will be annexed by the United States in eight or ten years, and the British Empire will begin to disintegrate. lie attributes the reciprocity .negotiations to the. failure of the British Government in 1907 to make a preferential treaty with the self-govern-ing dominions. Americans <he met at San Francisco did not cloak the fact that in their minds was the ahsorption of Canada. Reciprocal trade would -allow American trust combines tc 4 spread through Canada. He was glad to see the growing feeling in Canada against the treaty and thinks the people will have more sense than to ratify it.