A DEFINITE IMPERIAL PURPOSE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 30, 5 February 1907, Page 6

A DEFINITE IMPERIAL PURPOSE.

Mr. Balfour has enjoyed a happy respito from tho fiscal question since the conclusion of his concordat with Xl*. Chamberlain on the eve of the by-elec-tion for the City of London, which restored him to political lifo after his crushing defeat at 'Manchester a few weeks beforo. As plain Mr. Balfour, but a candidato for a constituency which was a stronghold of tariff reform, tho exPremier aftd ex-M.P. addressed on tho 14th of February last a letter to Mr. Chamberlain — a letter which was commonly regarded as a complete surrender to the latter's fiscal viows ; and tho data provided Sir F. C. Gould with one of tho happiest of his inspirations in a volentino entitled "Hit at Last," in which a littlo eye-glassed cupid was depicted aiming a fiscal arrow at the heart of tho man who onco had no settled convictions, while the "whdle hogs" of tariff reform gambolled sympathetically in tho background. Mr. Balfour was certainly hit on that occasion, but the wound must have boon a very slight one, for tho history of the last twelve months has given out littlo evidonco of a genu-^ me chango of heart. It was really but* a qualified and conditional acceptance that Mr. Balfour had given, even m his tqndorest moment, to tho proposals of his fiscal suitor ; and when the crisis had passed, he was himself the first to complain that those who accused him of a definite meaning had omitted all his "jf's." Thore was, indeed, one large "if" in his Valentine's Day letter, which made the wholo thing absolutely hypothetical for any practical purposo beyond tho immediate exigencies of his candidature After the elimination of various "introductory clauses of a qualifying character," the concluding sentonco of tho letter wa3 as follows :— "The establishment of a moderate general tariff on manufactured goods, not imposed for the purpose of raising prices or giving artificial protection against legitimate competition, and the imposition of a small duty on foreign corn, aro not in principle objectionable, ana should be adopted if shown to be necessary for the attainment of the ends in view or for purposes of ro venue." For the purposes of statesmanship that final "it" leaves the essential question undetermined, and in the absence of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, whoso serious illness is still paralysing the cause of tariff reform, his son was expressing a few days ago the discontent of many membars of the party at their leader s continued vagueness. "Whiie they were loyal to Mr. Balfour," said Mr. Austen Chamberlain, "the tariff reformers were not prepared to allow the question of tariff reform to be treated as a mere pious opinion." Mr. Balfour's answei as reported yesterday is characteristic. "Ho was not aware, Mie said, "of any need for issuing monthly bulletins defining his fiscal views. These weie unchanged, but ho was increasingly convinced that Britain had sufforea greatly through self-imposed trammels." And instead of explaining whether he had made any progress tbwarcls the unravelling of nis great "if," or contributing a ainglo positive Or helpful word for the encouragement of hie party, Mr. Balfour proceeded to attack the other side "for not saying a single thing publicly to indicate that it sympathised with the means tho self-governing colonies proposed for ensuring the unification and solidification of the Empire." While Mr. Balfour continues to amuse himself with these futile dialectics, Mr. Alfred Lyttelton has taken the much more sensible course of urging that the Colonial Conference should pay some attention to Sir Georgo Clarke's scheme for the imposition of a low duty on all foreign goods, oxcopb raw materials, discharged at any Imperial port. The four or five -million pounds which this tax is esti-> mated to produce might, Mr. Lyttelton considers, \3t> beneficially employed by a representative Imperial Board in strengthening the maritime communications of the Empire. "Such a board could lend on oasy terms to shipowners, and would also be able to counteract tho effects of foreign subsidies, and otherwise encourage and stimulate British seamanship, besides introducing, in a peculiarly unagfjressive form, the principle of preferential dealing between tho Motherland and her daugntor States. 1 ' Such a schomo as this makes a positive appeal which is utterly lacking from Mr. Baifour'u nebulous dialectics, and, we aro bound to add, ia far less open to attack than thfl schomo of Mr. Chamberlain with its ill-judged omphasis on the taxation of food; 'lite selection of a. definite and urgent Impoiial purpose for the rllocation of the proceeds is another great advantage, and we do not see that tho Imperial Conference could tlo better than take Sir Qeorge Clarke's* scheme as modiiiftd by Mr. Lyttelton for tho baiii of Hi diicueiloa of th« «übject>