The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The echo. THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1924. IMPERIAL UNITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 114, 15 May 1924, Page 4

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

THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1924. IMPERIAL UNITY.

For the eaune ihat leeks assistant, For the mong that need* resistant*, For the future in the distance, And the mod that v* can do.

The Secretary of State for the Colonies hae very frankly admitted that the British Government's "ruthless" rejection of the decisions reached by the late Imperial has aroused widespread apprehension and' anxiety in regard to its ultimate consequences. It should be some satisfaccion to Dominions to know that Mr. Thomas is not precisely easy in his mind about the barren result of the conference. But it would be more gratifying to learn that the Labour Government in Britain has some feasible alternative policy to propose. Unfortunately, on this point Sir. Thomas has not so far made any suggestion that can be . described as very helpful or useful. There may be something to be said for the idea that the Opposition, as well as the Governments of Britain and the Dominions should be represented at these conferences; faut the main objection is that it might make it still more difficult'for the conferences to be practically useful. Apart from this, Mr. Thomas seems to be content with "pious aspirations" and a laudable desire to lift Imperial questions and interests "out of the realm of party politics."

We may fairly assume that Mr. Thomas, in his references to Britain's repudiation of the conference's decisions, is thinking of the proposals adopted by the conference in favour of Preferential Trade within the Empire. Now, in regard to fiscal policy, it seems to us that this description of the Protection v. Preo Trade controversy, as a matter of party politics, throws a great deal of N light upon the position of the fiscal problem at Home. In Britain, apparently, the whole question is so confused with the traditions of party politics that it is practically impossible to secure an unprejudiced and impartial verdict one way or the other. This feature is less strongly marked on the ConservativeUnionist side; 'but among orthodox Liberals, the Cobdenite tradition and the great names of Bright and Gladstone still exercise positively overwhelming ascendancy. Mr. Thomas is very seriously in error if he imagines that similar conditions exist in the political world outside. It would be inaccurate to say that there are no Free Traders left in the Dominions. But it is certain that there is not in any of the Dominions a political party which has adopted Cobdenism as a leading tenet of its political faith, or would under any circumstances venture to propose the abolition of the Protectionist system under which our infant industries are developing toward maturity. If Mr. Thomas really imagines that the presence of leaders of I colonial Oppositions at an Imperial Conference would strengthen the hands of the British Free Traders, he can cure himself of this delusion very speedily by simply making the experiment.

We do not think that we are doing Mr. Thomas an injustice by suggesting that he is a Free Trader by tradition rather . than by conviction. For Mr, Thomas is not entirely blind to tliu necessity—which Cobden and Bright, by the way, refused to admit—-of binding the Empire together by the strong ties of material interest. In referring, to Mr. Theodore's successful loan flotation on Queensland's behalf he observed that if one of the Dominions were to seek and obtain outside the Empire the financial help available within it the Empire would barely recover from the blow. We cordially agree. But if it i*-« 0

necessary to maintain Imperial Reciprocity for financial purposes, is it not worth Britain's while to consider seriously the policy advocated by the supporters of Preferential Trade for holding the Empire together by establishing a community of commercial and material interests as well? It is not practical politics to suggest that the recommendations of the Imperial Conference should necessarily be binding on all parts of the Empire. Yet to bring Prime Ministers from all parts of the world to consult together—for the Conference is purely a consultative body—and then to refuse to carry out their recommendations may in the long run seriously weaken Imperial unity.