DUTY ON FOREIGN GOODS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 28, 2 February 1907, Page 5

DUTY ON FOREIGN GOODS.

» A QUESTION FOR THE COLONIAL CONFERENCE. [Ktt&a ASSOCIATION.? LONDON, Ist February. Mr. Alfred Lyttelton (Colonial Secretary in the Balfoor Ministry), speaking at Cambridge, said ho hoped the j Colonial Conference Would discuss a scheme that had been put forward by Sir CJeorge S. Clarke (ex-Governor of Victoria) for tho Imposition of a low duty on all foreign goods discharged at any Imperial port, except raw materials. That would yield annually four or five million pounds, which Mr. Lyttelton thought might be beneficially j spent in strengthening the maritime communications of tho Empire, under an Imperial Board sitting successively at Montreal, Bombay, Capotown, and Sydney. Such a board could lend •on \ easy terms to shipowners, and would also be able to counteract tho effects of "foreign subsidies, and otherwisa encourage end stimulate British seamanship, besides introducing, In v -peculiarly unaggressivo form, tho principlo of preferential dealing between, the Motherland and her daughter States. Tho Standard considers that the fundamental idea of Sir George Clarke's and Mr. Lyttelton'n suggestion is sound, and ought to bo examined without political or economic bias.