Mr Chamberlain’s Birmingham Speech.

Manawatu Herald, 21 May 1903, Page 2

Mr Chamberlain’s Birmingham Speech.

The speech delivered at Birmingham by Mr Chamberlain on Friday night has aroused extraordinary interest in Canada. Mr W. S. Fielding, Minister for Finance, in the course of an intertviewv expressed Aj» the views of the Colonial Secretary. The President of the Board of Trade at Ottawa predicts that the speech will be heartily reciprocated by the colonies. f The “ Montreal Gazette ’’ says the discussion of linpieriai preferential trade has been brought nearer to' the realm of practical statesmanship. . The “ Mail and Empire, a Toronto journal, declares that , the basin has been laid for a great Imperial policy. IN GERMANY.

Mr Chamberiain’a speech has made a deep impression in Germany. The newspapers adopt a cautious tone but they recognise the seriousness of the economic issue raised by the British Minister. .■ The “ Yosaiache Zeitung” says that the British colonies are loosely connected with the Motherland, but economically they are quite independent, and control their own commercial relations with foreign countries without considering the Motherland The newspaper goes on to state that the Customs policy of the Australian Commonwealth has . caused bitter disappointment in London in other, as well as Imperialistic circles. The Colonial Conference last year, it says, showed how little the colonies were prepared to abandon their existing systems. The “ National Zeitung" says that Germany will remin firm in her attitude of commercial defence against Canada, but will not allow herself to be driven into political opposition to Canada, and the Motherland. IN SOUTH AFRICA. The “ Cape Times” says that if Great Britain shapes her policy on the lines of Mr Chamberlain’s Birmingham speech, the only plausible objections of the opponents to a South African preferential-tariff disappear.