The Hastings Standard Published Daily SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1897. THE LONDON CONFERENCE.

Hastings Standard, Issue 363, 3 July 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily

SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1897. THE LONDON CONFERENCE.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance. And the good that we can do.

The Conference of Colonial Premiers with the Colonial Office, as represented by the Right Hon -J. Chamberlain, has fizzled. That at any rale is the meaning to be attached to the latest cable messages bearing on the subject. From the amount of puffing that has been given to preferential trading as between the component parts of the Empire it was but reasonable to expect that the subject would have received special treatment at the hands of the man best calculated to deal with it. But Mr Chamberlain referred to the matter in general terms, that is to say he has shirked the principal subject of the Conference, and the best that can be hoped for now is an inquisition by a Royal Commission, which means that preferential trading within the Empire will come with the Greek kalends. Mr Chamberlain's attitude is inexplicable except we associate it with surrounding circumstances. It may be that in flaunting the flag of trade preference he was merely indulging in a little cheap but effective advertising and never really intended to press the subject. If so his conduct is open to grave censure. It is, however, mental exaggeration to assume that a person in so responsible a position as the Secretary of State for the Colonies would wantonly " play to the gallery." We think Sir Chamberlain has beeu working in all seriousness, but has been a little too previous in his assertions. Mr Chamberlain is powerless against the commercial interests of Great Britain, and to give effect to preferential trading within the Empire the mother country would have to submit to much immediate loss. Stated plainly, the German and Belgian treaties, the retrcc ssion of which has been urged by Mr Seddon, bars the way. In the early sixties, when the colonies were in swaddling clothes and the British Government exercised close parental authority, the British Foreign office signed away our commercial independence so far as Germany and Belgium arj concerned. It was a short-sighted policy and a great mistake. The Home Government has not dared to repeat it in the commercial treaty with -Japan signed a year qy two ago. The German and Belgian treaties place the colonies in pawn, and we have no right to grant preferential trade rights to England without giving the same preference to the two foreigners. In the Belgian treaty signed 23rd July, 1862, Article XV. reads—" Articles the produce or manufacture of Belgium shall not be subject in the British colonies to other or higher duties than those which are or may be imposed upon similar articles of British origin." It is indeed a question whether OY not this Article does not covet the much-talked

of intercolonial reciprocity, such as was proposed with South Australia in 1891. The produce or manufactures of South Australia or any other British colony would be of British origin ; if so whatever preference is given to such produce or manufactures must be extended to Belgium. In the German treaty signed 30th May, 1860, the articles numbered I to VI confer mutual privileges and rights on the contracting nations, and in Article VII the treaty provides that " The stipulations of the preceding Articles I to VI shall also be applied to the colonies and foreign possessions of her Britannic Majesty. In those colonies and possessions the produce of the States of the Zollverein shall not be subject to any higher or other import duties than the produce of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland or of any country of the like kind ; nor shall the exportation from these colonies or possessions to the Zollverein be subject to any higher or other duties than the exportation to the United Kingdom of Great Britian and Ireland." Both the States have been, it seems, approached with a view of obtaining an abrogation of the special clauses in the treaties which bind the British colonies, but without success. Now the point is will the British Government fall in with the colonial view and denounce the treaties '? This, although it is the only way out of the difficulty, will not be taken by Her Majesty's Ministers. The colonies have little or nothing to lose by the abandonment of the treaties, but it is a different thing with Great Britain. According to the Board of Trade returns the exports from the United Kingdom in 1896 to Germany were valued at £22,178,000, and to Belgium at £7,824,000. To recede from the treaties means jeopardising this trade, which forms a very appreciable part of the total export trade of the United Kingdom without taking into account the import trade, which is also of considerable value. British public opinion is not sufficiently educated to make this sacrifice for the welding of the Empire, and we must perforce remain as Ave are or induce the Germans and Belgians to abrogate the special clauses which bind the colonies. Mr Chamberlain was of course well aware of all the impediments in the way of preferential trade when he blew his trumpets, and the fact that he made his " Imperial blasts " to be heard throughout the Empire suggests that he had formulated a scheme for commercial union, bu'u has been compelled to defer disclosing the same through" other circumstances. The South African trouble and the Jameson raid are probably answerable for Mr Chamberlain's reticence. The cables told us that some remarkable rumors were afloat with respect to the Jameson raid involving Mr Chamberlain. What if these rumors crystalise into facts? Is it not possible that a shadow of a pending disaster has caused Mr Chamberlain to be as close as an oyster with his commercial federation scheme? To make this scheme public for someone else to step in and reap the reward is not the kind of statesmanship that Mr Chamberlain has been in the habit of indulging in. However, whether Mr Chamberlain has or has not a ready made scheme of commercial federation for the Empire the fact remains that he very adroitly shifted the onus of making proposals on to the shoulders of the visiting Premiers, and they, poor men, are not equal to such a gigantic taslj. They in their turn fall back upon the colonial politician's good old " get out " a Royal Commission, and thus for the moment ends the dream of the Imperialists of preferential trade within the British Empire.