WHO IS CONSISTENT?

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 223, 9 December 1927, Page 8

WHO IS CONSISTENT?

Sir, — J.H.B.’s” idea that free traders are not consistent in claiming that America enjoys a large measure of free trade, there being no tariff walls between -18 States and 120 millions of people, is a quaint one. Her “free inter-trading” is an advantage; her “high tariff erected against the rest of the world" is a disadvantage. Your eorrespondent further says that America’s tariff P°>V; y should be good enough for us. IN ell does he favour intra-Empire free trade? It is significant that he has not answered my question whether he supports “the shutting out of this country of all British goods which are capable of manufacture here behind an adequate tariff wall.” I rather fancy a candid reply to this would throw a strange light on “J.H.B.’s” consistency in advocating a united Empire. That the British nations are a power for peace does not affect in the least my contention that Britain’s influence would be lessened by the adoption of the closed door. The people who place their hopes of world peax?e ° n^ ai L Empi r e living unto itself alone, and boycotting other nations’ trade, are themselves a danger. Happily, even the Tories of England give wholehearted support to that larger league, the League of Nations. C.H.X.