THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1909. AMERICA'S BID TO CANADA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3123, 25 February 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1909. AMERICA'S BID TO CANADA.

Four years or more have passed since Mr Chamberlain warned *he British people that "the Colonies will never want for suitors, and if you do not pay your court ta them while still they are willing to receive your addresses, you will find that in the time to come they will have made other arrangements." That the New York Chamber of Commerce has voted in favour of reciprocity with Canada, and haa called upon other American commercial bodies to urge Congress to conclude the desired commercial

treaty, indicates that he foresaw the future clearly. The suitors for Canada's hand are there. On Canada's part the introduction in 1908. of the intermediate tariff, with a scale of duties midway between the preferential tariff granted to Great Britain and the nurmal tariff imposed on imports from countries outside the British Empire, was meant as a reminder to the world that Canada was open to overtures, and as an intimation to the people of the United Kingdom that she might not be able to wait interminably for their decision on the Free Trade issue. More than fifty years ago, in 1854, a | reciprocity treaty was concluded by British diplomacy between Canada and her great neighbour. England had then adopted Free Trade and withdrawn her preferences on Colonial goods, and her statesmen of that period were chiefly anxious to be relieved of the burden of Empire; Cobden said of Canada and the United Kingdom: "We are two peoples to all intents and purposes. . . In my opinion it is fof the interest of both that we should as speedily as possible sever the political thread" by which we are as communities connected." This, he thought, would be best accomplished by Free Trade, which, in his words, would "gradually and imperceptibly loosen the bonds which unite the Colonies to us by a mistaken notion of selfinterest," and destroy "the Colonial system, with all its dazzling appeals to the passion of the people," The result might have followed long before the nineteenth century was-out but for the fact that in a moment of impatience the United States re- N jected the magnificent with which British statesmanship had presented them. They revoked the reciprocity treaty, which was highly advantageous to Canada, under the belief that such action on their part would compel her to join the Union. This was regarded as a challenge in Canada, and its instant effect was to strengthen the spirit of loyalty to the British Empire and the sense of Canadian nationality. A few years later Sir John Macdonald launched Canada upon her "national policy" with a high protective tariff, under which her industries have flourished and expanded. Then came, in 1897, the grant of preference to British imports, followed some' years later'by; an increase in the preference. If a treaty of reciprocity should be concluded between Canada and the United States, it will involve nothing less than the gradual absorption of Canada by her neighbour. The work which the Zollverein accomplished in Germany, by bringing Bavaria, Hesse, and all the minor States under the influence of Prussia, will be repeated on the North American continent. This would be a disaster to the British race only second to the loss of what is now the United States—the end of all the noble dreams and aspirations in which the largest minds of our race have indulged. The hour has come for us. as a people, to open our eyes and,to recognise that the roads to closer political relations with the Empire lies, and lies only through closer commercial relations. The two are inseparably intertwined. The British Empire of tho future must have its foundatuns laid in business as well as in sentiment. Else must it tend only to disunion and speedy decay.