EMPIRE TARIFFS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 93, 13 January 1908, Page 7

EMPIRE TARIFFS.

. LORD CROMER'S VIEWS. PROTECTION HARBOURS TRUSTS. : STATE SOCIALISM. IT IKI.KOItAPn—ritKSS ASSOCIATION—corIRianT. (Rec. Jan, 12, 4.14 p.m.) i London, January 11.. : Lord Cromor, formerly Minister I'lonipotentiary iil Egypt, and a memJior ■of the Unionist Free Trado Club, speaking at Glasgow,' claimed that freo.trado was a safeguwd against tho oreation of /huge trusts after the Amorieah fashion. Tho adoption of pro- : taction or preference would stimulate Anglophobia throughout tho world. Free trade was tho soundest, basis of Imperial policy.; Vird Cromor addod :— ■ , " Socialists , and extreme tariff reformers meet jn Australia on a oommCn ground, oach entertaining ■ an exaggerated belief in the State's ..••power to remedy economic evils." A BRITISH COMMISSIONER. preference; ■ EXPERTS AND BRANCH FACTORIES. London, January 11; ' Tho Manufacturers' Association'of Great Britain is despatching Mr. Ben Morgan as a Commissioner to inquiro into trade and its position and prospects- in Australasia and Canada, especially to'tho c-xteiit of the'possibilitiei' of thpse markets in relatidn to an iricroaso of, Britain's export trado, arid to establishing Jiraiich factories behind tariffs. .'Mr. Morgan will " also report on questions relating to competition'-, and shipping, and Teilll likewise try to securo further reductions tariffs 5 and increased preference. Some little 'tiruo ago it was ' reported that the " Armstrong Company.. -was • likely' to establish a' shipbuilding branch in Australia, to take advantage of the protective system. The ; Commissioner has apparently been instructed to report on the prospects of local manufacture as well as on the pushing of the import trade under preference. :; - I£rdr Cromer's opposition to tariff reform' as bfeing an incitement to Anglophobia has alreplied to by "The Times," which editorially comments"lf we dare not use at-Home, ■ for defensive purposes, tho tariff machinery freely used by all other nations offensively, and defensively, what ; is the good of talking;about our fleets? On that showing we are not a free people, but exi6t by the iind.jjermis'sion of others, so long ah we aU low them to do as they please in.our markets."