%l)t imnimait TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1920. IMPERIAL PREFERENCE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 253, 20 July 1920, Page 4

%l)t imnimait TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1920. IMPERIAL PREFERENCE

Few better examples of a prejudiced outlook arc afforded than by those politicians in Great Britain who persist in opposing and denouncing oven the most modest forward step iu Imperial preference. An example in point appears to-day in the report of a House of Commons debate in which Captain Wedgwood Benn proposed the repeal of the British preferential duties. As he is reported, Captain Benn took up a most illogical attitude. He said that these duties were ''trifling and absurd," and yet went on to maintain that the policy of Imperial preference had led to economic frictiou, adverse to tho world's peace. Manifestly, if tho duties were capable of producing • these dire results they would be anything but trifling even if critics still elected to doscribe them as absurd. It is noteworthy that Captain Benn and those who stand with him in opposing Imperial preference hold Jhat an adjustment of the United Kingdom tariff in favour of the rest of tho Empire will result in the evils they prophesy so confidently. These root-and-branch Free-traders have never been much concerned about the extension of preference to the Mother Country by the Dominions. If they troubled to look into this aspect of the question they would perceive that their favourite arguments arc refuted by the results of practical experience extending over a long term of years. They argue that active participation bv Great Britain in a policy of Imperial

preference will occasion so much friction with foreign countries as to endanger the world's peace. This argument finds a very complete and conclusive answer in the fact that the Dominions for more than twenty years have been developing a policy of preference (chiefly in favour of the Mother Country) which exerts a far more important influence on the course of world trade than any preferential duties Britain nas yet imposed or is likely to impose, and that no one seriously suggests that international friction, much less any disturbance of worldpeace, has resulted from this policy. It is twenty-three years since Canada took what has been well described as a first step towards the recognition of the fiscal unity of the British Empire, and within tho next ten years New Zealand, South Africa,' and Australia followed suit.

The results of this policy have boon and are seen, not in international friction, but in the pre-emin-ent place taken by British exports in the markets of the overseas Empire. There is no doubt that the preference extended to the Mother Country by the Dominions has done a great deal to foster inter-Imperial trade and to limit importations into the Dominions from" foreign countries. It would be absurd to suggest that foreign exporting countries, which themselves for the most part maintain high protective tariffs, rind in this wholesome development of trade within the Empire any cause of offence. It is still more absurd to contend that the restricted preferential duties enacted in the Mother Country will give rise to international friction. As a matter of fact the preference which Britain extends to he.r Dominions' ami dependencies is of little fiscal significance. As it was enacted last year it applies to motor-cars and cycles, clocks, watches, kinematograph films, musical instruments, spirits, wine, beer, tobacco, sugar, saccharin, tea, coffee, and cocoa. With the exception of tho duty ,on spirits, the preference was given in every case by way of a remission of existing rates in favour of Empire products, and not by an extra duty on foreign products. This year a substantial increase in the ordinary duties on alcoholic liquors was accompanied in some cases by a slight increase of the preferential margin in favour of Empire products. Obviously, preference on these lines is as little open to criticism from the standpoint of the interests of the British consumer as Uis on other grounds. The benefit extended to the Dominions in, of course, limited, and necessarily will remain so while foodstuffs form as large a proportion as at present of their total exports. There arc insuperable objections to preferential duties which would tend to raise food prices in Great Britain, and similar objections apply in the case of commodities like wool Canada alone is likely to benefit to a material extent for the time being by the remission of duty on some classes of manufactures. In spite of these limitations, the preference extended by the Mother Country is undoubtedly appreciated ffi the Dominions. As Mr. Chamberlain- has suggested, it gives practical expression to the principles of Imperial kinship and unity. It is less important in its immediate material effects than as a definite, though modest, step forward in a policy which looks to the creation of a united and self-supporting Empire.