TARIFF BARRIERS.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 April 1923, Page 3

TARIFF BARRIERS.

IMPERIALIST IDEA. AUSTRALIAN AND N. 7.. CAULK ASSOCIATION. LONDON. April 25. The Lord Mayor of London, presiding over a meeting of the Kill].ire Development Fuicii at the Mansion House said that till classes ought to combine to make the forthcoming Imperial Economic Conference a successful starting point for a new and gieat development of trade ontcrpiisc throughout the Dominions. The latter were anxious to co-operaie. During the hist quarter of a century they had gone far ahead of the Motherland in promoting inter-im-perial trade relations. Viscount Long said the union was not formed to oppo-e, hut to iie'p the Government in strengthening interTtiii cviel commercial tins. This did not mean abaud.-ning Britain'; lon~established trade policy, hit., witlnn limits, that policy could i fi'i-’ Hi • Dominions extended op] ot 'inn: ties lor trade development. Curiously enough tin- only resistance lie knew of to an extension of Imperial federation in

trade came from those who argued that it was the Government's duty to -c cure the best possil le standard of h e for the wage-earning classes. Ihe ap-

plication of the principle of prclerential duties in favour of the Mother Country, a preference which negaii in ( amnia a quarter of a century ago, bad been supported. The other Dominions had steadfastly continued and increased it. despite the profoundly regiettahlc absence of a practical response from the Motherland. They rejoiced in the Dominions’ preferences to Britain. The hand which the Dominions were now holding out should be firmly grasped in order that the Empire might become cue in name and in lact. Migration and land settlement schemes wore useless unless the migrants commanded markets here giving a lair return for their labour. Ibis was attainable if Britain adopted a carefully thought out policy of Imperial ] reference. and not by a reversal, but by ap extension cf the present Imperial trade policy.