AN IMPERIAL ZOLLVEREIN.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 October 1929, Page 8

AN IMPERIAL ZOLLVEREIN.

“ Lord Beaverbrook lias concentrated upon a new way of salvation which he is pleased to call Empire Free Trade,” writes Mr A. W. Haycock, M.P., in the “ Socialist Review.” “It is Joseph Chamberlain’s Zollverein over again it looks nice on paper ; but is it practicable ? Given certain conditions, I personally have some sympathy for the idea of the Zollverein in the abstract; but as a Canadian and a realist, I am aware of one or two facts concerning my own birthplace which completely knock the bottom out of Lord Beaverbrook’s scheme. The first and most important df these is the fact that Canada is not, as Lord Beaverbrook knows very well, solely an agricultural country, not even acounter whose trade and commerce is entirely in raw materials. On the contrary, Canada has rapidly developing manufactures, and the Canadian Manufacturers’ Association largely calls the time in Canadian politics; and one thing is absolutely certain, that the Canadian Manufacturers’ Association will never consent willingly to any form of customs union which breaks down the tariff walls that at present surround Canada and exposes their home market to the competition of duty-free British imports.”