The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1903. PREFERENCE AND MORAL. SUASION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 305, 23 December 1903, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1903. PREFERENCE AND MORAL. SUASION.

Pin- i/ye cause that lack* aitiitemce. For the wrong that needs retitttmct, For the future in the distance. AM ths (rod ttutt we cm dm.

There are two very noticeable points in the cabled comments of the Berlin "Reicnsbote" upon the colonial offers of preference to British trade. In the first place it is evident that, inadequate as Mr. Seddon's offer may seem to enthu- : siastic Imperialists, it is sufficient to produce a deep impression upon the minds of our foreign rivals. And here it is poisible that our German competitors have gauged the situation more accurately than our English critics. For what is chiefly important about colonial attempts at preferential trade is not the actual amount of the advantage conferred upon British commerce, but the attitude that it indicates on the part of the British colonies. The moral effect of the concessions we have offered is as profound as if their pecuniary value were ten times greater. Germany understands that this.is only a tentative scheme, an initial experiment; but it may lead to a close commercial alliance between England and the colonies, and this is what the Germans and all the foreign competitors of England have most to fear. Mr. Seddon may be content with knowing that, though he has not satisfied the Fair Traders, and has horrified the Free Traders, ne has at least alarmed the Germans. For, as the second part of our cable shows, the Germans understand even better than the English that it is the British market on which their commerce chiefly depends. The '"Reichsbote" considers that "if the other colonies imiitate New Zealand's example," Germany -will be "excluded from the world's markets." As a matter of fact, England and tile British colonies, forming the one important free maritet in the world, re- ■ present almost all Germany's opportunities for commercial expansion outside her own boundaries; and the Germans have never attempted to conceal their fear lest jrlr. Chamberlain's crusade should close

in triumph, and preferential trade should be established throughout the Empire. The "Reichsbote's" anxiety is a sufficient I reply to the Free Traders who assert that j ■retaliation by ineam of preferential tariffs would be useless to England. If 'it would cripple German competition, as the Germans themselves anticipate, it would make a vast difference to British trade. And what then, asks the "Reichsbote," does Germany propose to do? It is easy to talk about further retaliation, but the protected nations have already retaliated as far as they can against England. They have imposed tariffs wherever it suited their interests. They buy British goods only when and where they find them indispensable. Germany ii_v alxczriy ' taxed - British- - products a*

far as she can consistently with her own interests, ana she will not risk injuring those interests by further taxation merely with the hope of crippling British trade. As far as retaliation is concerned Germany is in the position of an army that has fired away its ammunition before the fight begins, and the moral effect of New Zealand's offer is all the greater because England's rivals know that by closing her markets against them she would take from them much of their present commercial prosperity and their chief hope ox future commercial expansion.