CANADA AND THE STATES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 233, 7 February 1911, Page 5

CANADA AND THE STATES

RECIPROCITY AND ITS EFFECT ON ENGLAND. A DEARER LOAF. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. London, February 5. Mr. Austen Chamberlain, speaking at the dinner of the Birmingham Jewellers' Association, said that the CanadianAmerican reciprocity agreement would have the. greatest effect on commercial history of any agreement since the foundation of the German Zollverein. If the agreement was ratified he feared that the result would be a great diversion of Canadian trade to the south. The agreement exposed Britain to the new and eager competition of the United States. Food prices, which had been kept low in Britain by bountiful Canadian harvests, might be increased by the American demand. Men who shrank from the best bargain ever offered a commercial nation, fearing to raise the price of bread by a farthing, might see their policy raise bread by half-pennies .nd pence. COLOSSAL POSSIBILITIES. London, February 5. The Evening Standard gives details of the schedule of the Canadian agreement with America, which is more extensive and far-reaching than the telegraphed summaries indicated. Mr. Hewins, secretary of the Tariff Commission, says that the possible results of the agreement are colossal. He denied that the agreement would be a 'deathblow to preference, which, on the other hand, was now more urgent. A COMPARISON OF PREFERENCE. THE BREAD TAX IN BRITAIN. I Received 6, 11.35 p.m. London, February 6. The Daily Mail says the United States offers Canadian farmers 7%d a bushel for wheat more than can be obtained in Canada. British preference only amounts to 3d. Clearly Great Britain's so-called' bread-tax is definitely and finally extinguished, and the sonner the Unionists let their constituents know this the better. Protection of manufactured goods and further lowering the duties of British manufactures within the Empire would appeal strongly to Canada and the British people, but the increased price of food in Great Britain is inevitable. ANOTHER PRESS VIEW. Received 0, 11.35 p.m. London, February 6. The Daily Chronicle declares that if a remnant of the fiscal policy survives it will be a sordid vulgar protectionism, incapable of exalted appeal.