Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 1932.

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 81, 6 April 1932, Page 8

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 1932.

NOT BARRACKERS BUT STATESMEN ♦ — Two interesting statements regarding the Ottawa Conference were reported fronT Canada yesterday. At Montreal Mr. H. H. Stevens, the Canadian Minister of Trade and Commerce, had been deprecating in a common-sense fashion "the entire idea of bargaining at the Imperial Conference." At Toronto, the Canadian High Commissioner in Great Britain, Mri G. Howard) Ferguson, had been carrying to a more exalted pitch than ever the tall talk which has always seemed to'us to be just as likely to result in disappointment as the' spirit of bargaining. Obviously referring to British opinion and sentiment on the subject as he had diagnosed it in London, Mr. Ferguson is reporied to have spoken to an/interviewer as follows:— On'every hand it is said-that sfnee the Reformation has been nothing of bo1 much importance as the Imperial Economic Conference at Ottawa in July. .It is spoken of as a dispensal--tion in British history, independent of politics and independent of everything else.' It is realised--that .the Empire is facing the termination of. its dependence on international contracts. ' From time to time we have deprecated the extravagant hopes with which to build upon the Ottawa Conference as the surest possible prelude to disappointment. But if the Canadian High Commissioner's diagnosis of its attitude to the Conference is correct, the nation which by its courage_ and calmness and solid sense during the last eight months has attracted the admiration of the world has perhaps not taken complete leave of its sense's, but—to put it very mildly—is , certainly not showing that appreciation of realities and probabilities which its great record had made it reasonable to expect. So extravagant indeed is the statement attributed to the Canadian High Commissioner as to suggest that the cabled version of it owes something to a faulty transmission. Is it possible that he can have represented the British people as going' all the way back to "the Reformation" in order to find a parallel to the stupendous importance of the Conference which is about to meet at Ottawa? Just four centuries have passed since Henry VIII., upon whom the "gospellight first dawn'd from Bullen's eyes" a few years previously, had himself declared by Act of Parliament "sole protector and supreme head of the Church and clergy of England," an*d several important things have since happened ,to r an -Empire- which cannot, then have Included" much more than Calais. .Three centuries would-be^ cut off the wild absurdity attributed to Mr. Ferguson- if we suppose that it was not the Reformation tut the Reform Bill or the R e f6rm era that was really his starting point it; the century that remained would still suffice to, convict him—or the people of whom he spoke—of absurdity, the statement could-at any rate be no longer described as idiotic. I his glorious "dispensation in British history," which is said to be "independent of politics and independent, of everything else," would still be to a very large extent independent of common sense, but not so completely destitute, of it as the unamended version implies. For practical purposes, however, the mischief of the Canadian High Commissioner's statement lies less in the utter disproportion of its historical perspective than in its outlook on the future. j It -is realised, he says, that the Empire js facing the termination of its dependence on international contracts. If that means that Britain is to sacrifice her fiscal arrangements with foreign countries in order to make1 her preference of the Dominions the more effective, or that the ideal should be a ring fence round the Empire'which t would subject Britain's trade with foreign countries to seriously disabling restrictions, this is a View which-will^certainly be no part of Britain's case at the Conference, and.which.no Dominion delegate should dream of seeking to have included in it. Though for the sake of. the united front demanded by an unprecedented emergency a large majority of the Free Traders agreed at the British General Election to leave the tariff an open question, and it is highly probable that the tariff which has since been established has come to stay, the responsible leaders of all parties are .agreed that to provoke a tariff war with other nations is out of the question and that the measure ojf the new policy's success will be its effect in lowering the tariff barriers which are at prer sent one of the very worst, of the world's remediable curses. For the present France. is badly hit by Britain's tariff, but she has to bear it in, order that Britain may have a free, hand at the Ottawa Conference. SubijeoM© 'wiiafc may be there -arranged,]

the. negotiations for the improvement of the position will be resumed. Freer trade and friendlier relations, between Britain and France will be for the benefit of the whole Empire. It is not "the termination of the dependence on international contracts," but their readjustment for the mutual benefit of all parties that Britain has in view, that the Dominions cannot ask her to forego. , The contribution of Canada's Minister of Trade and Commerce to the discussion is much more helpful than that of her High Commissioner. "I deprecato the entire idea of bar* gaining at the Imperial Conference," he says. "I would not like people to think that Britain will come with a closed fist to match Canada's closed ;-fist and say, 'I'll open my hand if you'll open yours.'" "It is the^feeling.at Ottawa that there will not be a bargaining attitude. There ■will be a feeling of generous, compromise on both sides, but no actual bargaining." This statement is, in its essentials quite'.unexceptiojiable. It is .certainly not in a' close-fisted or a grabbing .attitude that the representatives of the Empire should approach one another. at Ottawa/ and if Canada, which under Mr. Bennett's guidance seemed the likeliest to be aggressive, is inspired by "a feeling of generous compromise," it should be possible for the other Dominions to do as well. But though Mr. Stevens says that there should be "no actual bargaining," it is difficult to see how the final details can be arranged except by a process which, since it must be businesslike as well as generous, will not easily be distinguishable from bargaining. The friction which has had unpleasant results at previous Imperial Conferences could, however, be, very largely avoided it the details of this final process were settled in committeesNew Zealand would have, perfect confidence that a delegation headed by Mr. Forbes.' and Mr. Downie Stewart, would display the generosity for which the, Canadian Minister stipulates and "the spirit of co-oper-ation" of which our own High Commissioner speaks. ■ But it is thel cooperation not of the Conference delegates but .of the' conflicting interests in this country that will present their real difficulty. Some simple-minded, advocates of these interests would like to * send special representatives to Ottawa to prove perhaps that "a 20 per cent, preference would suit them better than one of 10 per cent. If an industry can" be found which would prefer a 20 per cent, sacrifice to a 10 per cent, one, it would be infinitely more deserving of representation. The safe tiling to do with these interested parties is, however, to keep' them right out of it. It is not bargainers or barrackers but statesmen that are needed at Ottawa.